(c)Nature of Rites
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Skeat, Walter William
Fasting, or the performance of religious penance, which is now but seldom practised, would appear to have been only undertaken in former days with a definite object in view, such as the production of the state of mental exaltation which induces ecstatic visions, the acquisition of supernatural powers (sakti), and so forth.
The fast always took place, of course, in a solitary spot, and not unfrequently upon the top of some high and solitary hill such as Mount Ophir (Gunong Ledang), on the borders of Malacca territory. Frequently, however, much lower hills, or even plains which possessed some remarkable rock or tree, would be selected for the purpose.
Such fasting, however, did not, as sometimes with us, convey to the Malays the idea of complete abstinence, as the magicians informed me that a small modicum of rice contained in a kĕtupat (which is a small diamond-shaped rice-receptacle made of plaited cocoa-nut leaf) was the daily “allowance” of any one who was fasting. The result was that fasts might be almost indefinitely prolonged, and the thrice-seven-days’ fast of ’Che Utus upon Jugra Hill, on the Selangor coast,28 is still one of the traditions of that neighbourhood, whilst in Malay romances and in Malay tradition this form of religious penance is frequently represented as continuing for years.
Finally, I would draw attention to the strong vein of Sympathetic Magic or “make believe” which runs through and leavens the whole system of Malay superstition. The root-idea of this form of magic has been said to be the principle that “cause follows from effect.”
“One of the principles of sympathetic magic is that any effect may be produced by imitating it.... If it is wished to kill a person, an image of him is made and then destroyed; and it is believed that through a certain physical sympathy between the person and his image, the man feels the injuries done to the image as if they were done to his own body, and that when it is destroyed he must simultaneously perish.”29
The principle thus described is perhaps the most important of all those which underlie the “Black Art” of the Malays.
Source notes
1 “The titles Pawang and Bomor are given by the Malays to their medicine men. The Pawang class perform magic practices in order to find ore, medicine crops, or ensure good takes of fish, etc. The Bomor usually practise their art for the cure of human disease. Both terms are, however, often used as though they were interchangeable.”—Clifford, Hik. Raja Budiman, pt. ii. p. 28 n. ↑
2 In Bukit Sĕnggeh the articles subject to this custom are priced as follows:—
Padi (unhusked rice)
3 cents a gantang (about a gallon).
Bĕras (husked rice)
10 cents a gantang.
Kabong (i.e. palm) sugar
2½ cents a “buku” of two pieces and weighing a kati (1⅓ lb. avoir.)
Cocoa-nuts
1 cent each.
Hen’s eggs
¼ cent each.
Duck’s eggs
½ cent each.
↑
3 C. O. Blagden in J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 29, pp. 5–7. ↑
4Ibid. p. 4. ↑
5 The Malay version runs:—
“Hei angkau Si Anu,
Tolong-lah aku
Aku bawakan kapada aulia Allah,
Aku ’nak minta ʿelmu sadikit.”
This method of getting magic is an exact transcription of the words in which it was dictated to me by a Kelantan Malay (’Che ʿAbas) then residing at Klanang in Selangor. ↑
6 Cp. Mr. G. C. Bellamy in Selangor Journal, vol. ii. No. 6, p. 90, who says: “The word kramat, as applied to a man or woman, may be roughly translated prophet or magician. It is difficult to convey the real idea, as Malays call a man kramat who is able to get whatever he wishes for, who is able to foretell events, and whose presence brings good fortune to all his surroundings. District officers will be proud to know that in this last sense the word is occasionally applied to them. When the name kramat is applied to a place, I understand it to mean a holy place, a place of pilgrimage; but it does not necessarily mean a grave, as many people think. I can quote the kramat at Batu Ampar, Jugra, and numerous places on river banks where no graves exist, but yet they are called kramats.” [There is, however, a tradition that a saint’s leg was buried at Batu Hampar!—W. S.] ↑
7 C. O. Blagden in J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 29, pp. 1–3. ↑
8 C. O. Blagden in J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 29, pp. 4, 5. ↑
9J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 2, p. 236. ↑
10Selangor Journal, vol. ii. No. 6, p. 90, seqq. ↑
11Ibid. vol. v. No. 19, p. 308. ↑
12Infra, Chap. V. pp. 153, 163. ↑
13 The local Malacca tradition represents her as still haunting her original seat. She is said to appear sometimes in the shape of an old woman with a cat, sometimes as a young and beautiful girl dressed in silk. She can transform her cat into a tiger if people molest her. J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 24, pp. 165, 166; No. 32, pp. 213, 214. ↑
14 Tylor, Prim. Cult. vol. ii. p. 340. ↑
15 Tylor, Prim. Cult. vol. ii. p. 341. ↑
16Vide supra, Chap. II. p. 42. ↑