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
Wrap the clod up in white cloth, and after fumigating it with incense,
place it at night beneath your pillow, and when you retire to rest
repeat the last two lines of the above charm as before and go to
sleep. If your dream is good proceed with, if bad desist from, your
operations. Supposing your dream to be "good," you must (approximately)
clear the site of the main building and peg out the four corners with
dead sticks; then take a dead branch and heap it up lightly with earth
(in the centre of the site?); set fire to it, and when the whole heap
has been reduced to ashes, sweep it all up together and cover it over
while you repeat the charm (which differs but little from that given
above). Next morning uncover it early in the morning and God will
show you the good and the bad.
The site being finally selected, you must proceed to choose a day for
erecting the central house-post, by consulting first the schedule of
lucky and unlucky months, and next the schedule of lucky and unlucky
days of the week. [267]
[The best time of day for the operation to take place is said to be
always seven o'clock in the morning. Hence there seems to be no need
to consult a schedule to discover it, though some magicians may do so.]
The propitious moment having been at last ascertained, the erection
of the centre-post will be proceeded with. First, the hole for its
reception must be dug (the operation being accompanied by the recital
of a charm) and the post erected, the greatest precautions being taken
to prevent the shadow of any of the workers from falling either upon
the post itself or upon the hole dug to receive it, sickness and
trouble being otherwise sure to follow. [268]
[The account in the Appendix, of which the above is a résumé, omits
to describe the sacrifice which has to be made before the erection of
the centre-post, which has therefore been drawn from the instructions
of other magicians.]
"When the hole has been dug and before the centre-post is actually
erected, some sort of sacrifice or offering has to be made. First
you take a little brazilwood (kayu sepang), a little ebony-wood
(kayu arang), a little assafoetida (inggu), and a little scrap-iron
(tahi besi), and deposit them in the hole which you have dug. Then
take a fowl, [269] a goat, or a buffalo [according to the ascertained
or reputed malignity of the locally presiding earth-demon (puaka)],
and cut its throat according to Muhammadan custom, spilling its blood
into the hole. Then cut off its head and feet, and deposit them within
the hole to serve as a foundation for the centre-post to rest upon
(buat lapik tiang s'ri). Put a ring on your little finger out of
compliment to the earth-spirit (akan membujok jembalang itu), repeat
the charm [270] and erect the post." [271]
Another form of the above ceremony was described to me by a magician
as follows:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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