4. MINERALS AND MINING CHARMS
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Skeat, Walter William
Come hither and partake of my banquet.
I wish to ask for your assistance,
I wish to open (excavate) this mine.”264
The chief taboos are the killing of any sort of living creature within the mine; to wear a sarong (Malay skirt); to bring into the mine the skin of any beast; and to wear shoes or use an umbrella within the mine. These are some of the perpetual taboos, but no doubt there are many others.
In the case of a sacrifice, however, the white buffalo may of course be killed, not within the mine itself, but still upon its brink; and when this is done, the head is buried, and small portions (which must be “representative” of every part of the carcase) should be taken and deposited in the “audience-chamber.”
Among the seven days’ taboos are mentioned the killing of any living timber (within the precincts of the mine?), lewdness, and the praising or admiring of the “grass seed” (puji buah rumput), which is the name by which the tin-ore must invariably be called within the precincts of the mine. This last taboo is due to the use of a special mining vocabulary to which the greatest attention was formerly paid, and which did not differ very greatly from that used in Perak.
Another account of the ceremony runs as follows; I give it word for word as I took it down from my Malay informant:—
“Take five portions of cooked and five portions of uncooked fowls, both white and black, together with black pulut rice,265 millet-seed (sĕkoi), seeds of the chĕbak China, etc. etc. When all is ready, burn incense, scatter the black rice with the right hand over the bottom of a tray, i.e. an anchak (such as is used for offerings to the spirits), fumigate and deposit the offerings in five portions upon this layer of rice (one portion going to each corner and one to the middle of the tray). Take black cloth, five cubits long, fumigate it, and wave it thrice round the head with the right hand from left to right, repeating the following invocation (sĕrapah):—
“O Grandfather ‘Batin’266 the Elder,
In whose charge are caverns and hill-locked basins,
O Grandfather ‘Batin’ the Younger,
In whose charge are all these your civil and military companies,
May the Ore which is on the Hills descend to the Plain,
May that which is Up-stream descend to Mid-stream,
And that which is Down-stream ascend to Mid-stream,
Assemble you together, O Ores, in this spot;
It is not I who call you,
It is Grandfather Batin the Elder who calls you,
It is Batin the Younger who calls you,
It is the Elder Wizard who calls you,
It is the Younger Wizard who calls you,
Assemble yourselves together, Rubbish and Trash,
House-lizards, ‘Kalerik,’ Centipedes, and Millipedes,
And partake of my banquet.
Let whosoever comes bring me ore,
A kĕtong267 or two,
A fistful or two,
An arai268 or two,
A gallon or two,
A basket or two,
Assemble yourselves together, Boiled Rice-seed,
Spinach-seed, Tobacco-seed, Millet-seed, Wild Ginger-seed,
Assemble yourselves together in this spot.
I wish to excavate this spot,
I wish to open a mine:
If you do not come, if you do not gather yourselves together,
I shall curse you;
You shall turn into dust, into air, and into water.
By virtue of the magic arts of my teacher be my petition granted.
It is not I who petition,