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

The next class of medicinal ceremonies consists of rites intended to effect the expulsion from the patient’s body of all kinds of evil influences or principles, such as may have entered into a man who has unguardedly touched a dead animal or bird from which the badi has not yet been expelled, or who has met with the Wild Huntsman in the forest.133

Badi is the name given to the evil principle which, according to the view of Malay medicine-men, attends (like an evil angel) everything that has life. [It must not be forgotten when we find it used of inert objects, such as trees, and even of stones or minerals, that these too are animate objects from the Malay point of view.] Von de Wall describes it as “the enchanting or destroying influence which issues from anything, e.g. from a tiger which one sees,134 from a poison-tree which one passes under, from the saliva of a mad dog, from an action which one has performed; the contagious principle of morbid matter.”

Hence the ceremony which purports to drive out this evil principle is of no small importance in Malay medicine. I may take this opportunity of pointing out that I have used the word “mischief” to translate it when dealing with the charms, as this is the nearest English equivalent which I have been able to find; indeed, it appears a very fairly exact equivalent when we remember its use in English in such phrases as “It’s got the mischief in it,” which is sometimes used even of inanimate objects.

There are a hundred and ninety of these mischiefs, according to some, according to others, a hundred and ninety-three. Their origin is very variously given. One authority says that the first badi sprang from three drops of Adam’s blood (which were spilt on the ground). Another (rather inconsistently) declares that the “mischief” (badi) residing in an iguana (biawak) was the origin of all subsequent “mischiefs,” yet adds later that the “Heart of Timber” was their origin, and yet again that the yellow glow at sunset (called Mambang Kuning or the “Yellow Deity”) was their origin. These two latter are, perhaps the most usual theories, but a third medicine-man declares that the first badi was the offspring of the Jin (“genie”) Ibn Ujan (Ibnu Jan?), who resides in the clouds (or caverns?) and hollows of the hills. Thus do Malay medicine-men disagree.

These “mischiefs” reside not only in animate, but also in inanimate objects. Thus in one of the elephant-charms given in the Appendix several different “mischiefs” are described as residing in earth, ant-hills, wood, water, stone, and elephants (or rhinoceroses) respectively. Again, in a deer-charm, various “mischiefs” are requested to return to their place of origin, i.e. to the Iguana (strictly speaking, the Monitor Lizard), Heart of Timber, and the Yellow Glow of Sunset. Yet another deer-charm calls upon “Badi” (as the offspring of the Jin Ibn Ujan, who resides in the clouds and hollows of the hills), to return thereto.135

The chief occasions on which this casting out takes place are, first, when somebody is ill, and his sickness is attributed to his accidental contact with (and consequent “possession by”) one of these mischiefs; and, secondly, when any wild animal or bird is killed. The ceremony of casting out the mischief from the carcases of big game will be found described under the heading of “Hunting Ceremonies.” I shall here confine myself to a brief description of the ceremony as conducted for the benefit of sick persons.

First make up a bunch of leaves (sa-chĕrek), consisting of the shrubs called pulut-pulut and sĕlaguri, with branches of the gandarusa and lĕnjuang merah (red dracæna), all of which are wrapped together in a leaf of the si-pulih, and tied round with a piece of tree-bark (kulit t’rap), or the akar gasing-gasing. With this leaf-brush you are to cast out the mischief. Then you grate on to a saucer small pieces of ebony wood, brazil wood, “laka” wood, sandalwood, and eagle-wood (lignaloes), mix them with water, putting in a few small pieces of scrap-iron, and rub the patient all over with the mixture.

Whenever a person is suffering from the influence of a waxen image (such as is described elsewhere),137 you must rub him (or her) all over with limes in order to “cast out the mischief.” These limes must be of seven different kinds, and you will require three of each kind. When you have got them, fumigate them with incense and repeat the appropriate charm, which is practically an appeal addressed to the spirit of the limes to assist in extracting the poisonous principle from the body of the sick man:—

This charm must be repeated overnight, and early next morning three thicknesses of birah leaves must be laid down (for the patient to stand upon during the lustration). The seven sorts of limes are at the same time to be squeezed into a bowl and divided into three portions. These portions are to be used three times during the day, at sunrise, noon, and sundown respectively, partly for washing off the cosmetics (which are rubbed all over the body), and partly as a medicinal draught or potion.

In the morning the cosmetic must be white (bĕdak puteh lulut), at noon it must be red (bĕdak merah), and at sundown black (bĕdak hitam). The “trash” of the limes (after squeezing) is wrapped up in a birah leaf at evening, and either carried out to the sea (into which it is dropped), or deposited ashore at a safe distance from the house. The only special taboo mentioned for this ceremony is that the patient must not during its continuance meet anybody who has come from a distance.

Another very curious form of this ceremony of “casting out devils” was described to me by a Kelantan Malay. It is worked on the substitute or “scapegoat” principle (tukar ganti), and the idea is to make little dough images of all kinds of birds, beasts, fishes, and even inanimate objects (a few of the former being fowls, ducks, horses, apes, buffaloes, bullocks, wild cattle (sĕladang), deer, mouse-deer, and elephants, besides those enumerated in the charm itself, whilst exceptions are to be the “unlucky” animals (bĕnatang sial) such as cats, tigers, pigs, dogs, snakes, and iguanas). When made they are to be deposited together in a heap upon a sacrificial tray (anchak), together with betel-leaves, cigarettes, and tapers. One of the tapers is made to stand upon a silver dollar, with the end of a piece of particoloured thread inserted between the dollar and the foot of the taper; and the other end of this thread is given to the patient to hold whilst the necessary charm is being repeated.