Malay Magic: Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula — John Shaqi
Malay Magic: Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay PeninsulaSkeat, Walter William
Religion
Malay Magic: Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula
Skeat, Walter William
Magic -- Malay Peninsula; Malays (Asian people) -- Folklore; Malays (Asian people) -- Social life and customs
that a Malay who probably considered himself indebted to me for some
assistance he had received, bound himself by a vow to offer sacrifice
at the shrine of a famous local saint should I be permitted to return
to the district. Of this, however, I knew nothing at the time, and
nothing could have exceeded my astonishment when I found upon my
return that it was my duty to attend the banquet which took place at
the saint's tomb in honour of my own recovery! [87]
Having shown the wide gulf which divides the "divine man" from
his fellows, I have still to point out the extent to which certain
portions of the human frame have come to be invested with sanctity,
and to require to be treated with special ceremonies. These parts
of the anatomy are, in particular, the head, the hair, the teeth,
the ears, and the nails, all of which I will take in their order.
The head, in the first place, is undoubtedly still considered by the
Malays to possess some modified degree of sanctity. A proof of this is
the custom (`adat) which regulates the extent of the sacrifice to be
offered in a case of assault or battery by the party committing the
injury. If any part of the head is injured, nothing less than a goat
will suffice (the animal being killed and both parties bathed in the
blood); if the upper part of the body, the slaughter of a cock (to be
disposed of in a similar way) will be held to be sufficient reparation,
and so on, the sacrifice becoming of less value in proportion as the
injured part is farther from the head. So, too, Mr. Frazer writes:
"The ... superstition (of the sanctity of the head) exists among
the Malays; for an early traveller reports that in Java people 'wear
nothing on their heads, and say that nothing must be on their heads,
... and if any person were to put his hand upon their head they would
kill him; and they do not build houses with stories in order that
they may not walk over each other's heads.' It is also found in full
force throughout Polynesia." [88]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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