Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and...

Most of these systems of divination involve the construction of a sort of calendar, and require some degree of astronomical knowledge; but of astronomy properly so-called the Malays have scarcely even a smattering, its place being taken by the, to them, far more important science of astrology. “Their meagre ideas regarding the motions of the heavenly bodies are derived, through the Arabs, from the Ptolemaic system.”229

The seven Heavenly Bodies (Bintang Tujoh), mentioned above, whose motions they believe to be produced by the agency of angels,230 retain their Arabic names,231 and are believed to rule the “seven ominous moments” (Katika Tujoh), which are supposed to depend on the influences of these several sidereal bodies.232

This form of divination is not quite so common as are those of the Five Ominous Times (5-square) and the Seven Heavenly Bodies (7-square), and I have not been able to find out much about the methods of working it, but a copy of one of the diagrams used for the purpose will be found on another page.

“Reckon the numerical equivalent of the person’s name and of the name of his mother by the values of the letters according to the system of the Abjad; add the two numerical equivalents together, and divide the total by twelve; if the remainder is 1, his sign is the Ram, if 2, the Bull, and so on.”

Besides the above, a few of the other constellations are known to possess Malay names, and wherever this is the case, the name given appears usually to be quite original, having no connection with the nomenclature obtaining among nations with which we are more familiar.235

In addition to the above, the Malays possess a curious system by which the lunar month is divided into a number of parts called Rĕjang. According to Newbold, “the twenty-eight Rĕjangs resemble the Nacshatras or lunar mansions of the Hindoos, rather than the Anwa of the Arabs”;236 and it is a priori very probable that they owe their origin to this Hindu system. But by the Malays their application has been generally misunderstood, and their number is usually raised to thirty so as to fit the days of the lunar month. Each of these divisions has its symbol, which is usually an animal, and the first animal in the list is (in almost all versions) the horse. A horse’s head is also the figure of the first of the Hindu Nakshatras, but there seems to be little trace of identity in the remaining figures, which for the sake of comparison are given, side by side with the Malay symbols, in the Appendix. The Malays have embodied this system in a series of mnemonic verses (known as Shaʿir Rĕjang), of which there are several versions, e.g. the Rĕjang of ’Che Busu, the Rĕjang Sindiran Maiat, and others.237

The Rĕjangs are also dealt with at length in prose treatises: one of these, which identifies the Rĕjangs with the days of the lunar month, begins “on the first day of the month, whose rĕjang is a horse, God Almighty created the prophet Adam; this day is good for planting, travelling, and sailing, and trading on this day will be profitable; it is also a good day for a wedding, and on this day it is lucky to be attacked (i.e. in war), but rather unlucky to take the offensive; ... good news received (at this time) is true, bad news is false; property lost (on this day) will soon be recovered; the man who stole it is short of stature, with scanty hair, a round face, a slender figure and a yellow complexion; the property has been placed in a house, ... under the care of a dark man; ... if a child is born on this day it will be extremely fortunate; if one is ill on this day, one will quickly recover; the proper remedy for driving away the evil (tolak bala), is to make a representation of a horse and throw it away towards the (East?)”238 In other respects this system of divination seems to agree in its main features with those which have already been described.

“Second, the Persian mode, viz. thirty days to each month; and, thirdly, that of Rum, i.e. thirty-one days to the month. The first is in general use. Some few, with greater accuracy, calculate their year at 354 days eight hours, intercalating every three years twenty-four hours, or one day to make up the deficiency, and thirty-three days for the difference between the solar and lunar years.

“The Malay months have been divided into weeks of seven days, marked by the return of the Mohammedan Sabbath. Natives who have had intercourse with Europeans divide the day and night into twenty-four parts, but the majority measure the day by the sun’s apparent progress through the heavens, the crow of the cock, etc. The religious day commences at sunset, like that of the Arabs and Hebrews.”

“There are two cycles borrowed from the Arabs, and known only to a few, viz. one of 120 years, the dour240 besar, and the other of eight, dour kechil. The latter is sometimes seen in dates of letters, and resembles the mode adopted by us of distinguishing by letters the different days of the week, substituting eight years for the seven days. The order of the letters is as follows: Alif-ha-jim-za-dal-ba-wau-dal-Ahajazdabuda. The present year (1251) is the year Toun-za.

Diagrams used for divinatory purposes—the two on the right being different kinds of “magic squares.” The left-hand top figure has small circles at different points of its anatomy, which are used as the means of divination. The left-hand figure at the bottom is used as a sort of compass—the diviner counting round it from point to point.

Most if not all these systems of reckoning seem to have been treated by the Malays from the astrological point of view as forming a basis for divination, and these crude notions of the lucky or unlucky nature of certain times and seasons are to some extent systematised by or in some degree mixed up with the idea of the mystic influence of numbers and geometrical figures.

Of the mystic figures used in divination, the first in importance is, no doubt, what has been called the “magic square,” a term applied to “a set of numbers arranged in a square in such a manner that the vertical, horizontal, and diagonal columns shall give the same sums.”