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

1 “To return to the elemental spirits, it was explained to me by a Malay, with whom I discussed the subject at leisure, that apart from the spirits which are an object of reverence, and which when treated with proper deference are usually beneficent, there are a variety of others. To begin with, spirits (the word used on this occasion was hantu) are of at least two kinds—wild ones, whose normal habitat is the jungle, and those that are, so to say, domesticated. The latter, which seem to correspond to what in Western magic are called ‘familiars,’ vary in character with their owners or the persons to whom they are attached. Thus in this particular village of Bukit Sĕnggeh, a few years ago, there was a good deal of alarm on account of the arrival of two or three strangers believed to be of bad character, who were supposed to keep a familiar spirit of a peculiarly malignant disposition, which was in the habit of attacking people in their sleep by throttling them. One or two cases of this kind occurred, and it was seriously suggested that I should make the matter the subject of a magisterial inquiry, which, however, I did not find it necessary to do. But the familiar spirits are by no means necessarily evil.... The chief point of importance is to keep these wild spirits in their proper place, viz. the jungle, and to prevent them taking up their abode in the villages. For this reason charms are hung up at the borders of the villages, and whenever a wild spirit breaks bounds and encroaches on human habitations it is necessary to get him turned out.”—Blagden in J.R.A.S., S.B.

No. 29, p. 4. ↑

2Vide Klinkert, v.d. Wall, and Pijnappel, sub voce. ↑

3 This “Bajang” was copied for me by ’Che Sam (for many years Malay munshi and clerk at Kuala Lumpur, Selangor), from the original which was posted up on the door of one of his neighbours. The outlines of the figure are made up from varying combinations of the names “Allah,” “Muhammad,” “ʿAli,” etc., in the Arabic character. ↑

4 “In all parts of the Peninsula the Bajang is said to be of the male gender, while the Langsuir is supposed to be a female. It is usually believed by Malays that the Bajang is merely a malignant spirit which haunts mankind, and whose presence foretells disaster. In Perak and some other parts of the Peninsula, however, the Bajang is regarded as one of the several kinds of demons which, the Malays hold, can be enslaved by man and become his familiar spirit. Such familiars, it is believed, are handed down in certain families as heirlooms. The master of the familiar is said to keep it imprisoned in a tabong, or vessel made from a joint of the bamboo, which is closed by a stopper made from the leaves of the Cotyledon laciniata, the Daun chĕkar bebek, or Daun sadingin, as they are variously termed by the Malays. Both the case and the stopper are prepared by certain magic arts before they can be employed in this way. The familiar is fed with eggs and milk. When its master wishes to make use of it he sends it forth to possess and prey upon the vitals of any one whom his malice may select as a victim. The individual thus persecuted is at once seized by a deadly and unaccountable ailment, which can only be cured by magic agencies. If the Bajang is neglected by its owner, and if the latter omits to feed it regularly, it is said that he often falls a victim to his own familiar.”—Clifford and Swett., Mal. Dic., s.v. Bajang. ↑

5 Swett., Mal. Sketches, p. 194, seqq. ↑

6 Swett., Mal. Sketches, pp. 198, 199. ↑

7J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 7, p. 28. Cp. “Langsuior, the female familiar, differs hardly at all from the bâjang, except that she is a little more baneful, and when under the control of a man he sometimes becomes the victim of her attractions, and she will even bear him elfin children.”—Swett., Mal. Sketches, p. 198. ↑

8 “Pontianak” appears to be synonymous with “Mati-anak,” which may perhaps be a shorter form of Mati bĕranak (“stillborn”); indeed, one of the charms against the Pontianak which I collected, commenced with the words, “Pontianak mati bĕranak.” ↑

9 Mr. Clifford (of Pahang), however, speaks of “that weird little white animal, the Mati-ânak, that makes beast noises round the graves of children.”—In Court and Kampong, p. 231. ↑

10 Cp., however, “The Pĕnangal, that horrible wraith of a woman who has died in childbirth, and who comes to torment small children in the guise of a fearful face and bust, with many feet of bloody, trailing entrails in her wake.”—Clifford, loc. cit.

“He (Mr. M.) said, ‘Very well then, tell me about the penanggalan only, I should like to hear it and to write it down in English so that Europeans may know how foolish those persons are who believe in such things.’ I then drew a picture representing a woman’s head and neck only, with the intestines hanging down. Mr. M. caused this to be engraved on wood by a Chinese, and inserted it with the story belonging to it in a publication called the Anglo-Chinese Gleaner. And I said, ‘Sir, listen to the account of the penanggalan. It was originally a woman. She used the magic arts of a devil in whom she believed, and she devoted herself to his service night and day until the period of her agreement with her teacher had expired and she was able to fly. Her head and neck were then loosened from the body, the intestines being attached to them, and hanging down in strings. The body remained where it was. Wherever the person whom it was wished to injure happened to live, thither flew the head and bowels to suck his blood, and the person whose blood was sucked was sure to die. If the blood and water which dripped from the intestines touched any person, serious illness immediately followed and his body broke out in open sores. The penanggalan likes to suck the blood of women in childbirth.

For this reason it is customary at all houses where a birth occurs to hang up jeruju11 leaves at the doors and windows, or to place thorns wherever there is any blood, lest the penanggalan should come and suck it, for the penanggalan has, it seems, a dread of thorns in which her intestines may happen to get caught. It is said that a penanggalan once came to a man’s house in the middle of the night to suck his blood, and her intestines were caught in some thorns near the hedge, and she had to remain there until daylight, when the people saw and killed her.

“‘The person who has the power of becoming a penanggalan always keeps at her house a quantity of vinegar in a jar or vessel of some kind. The use of this is to soak the intestines in, for when they issue forth from the body they immediately swell up and cannot be put back, but after being soaked in vinegar they shrink to their former size and enter the body again. There are many people who have seen the penanggalan flying along with its entrails dangling down and shining at night like fire-flies.

“‘Such is the story of the penanggalan as I have heard it from my forefathers but I do not believe it in the least. God forbid that I should.’”—Hikayat Abdullah, p. 143. ↑

11 A kind of thistle. ↑

12 “The origin of the Polong is this:—The blood of a murdered man must be taken and placed in a bottle (buli-buli, a bottle having a spherical or wide body and a long narrow neck). Then prayers are said over it, and something or other is read, I don’t know what, but it has to be learnt. After seven days of this worship, according to some people, or after twice seven days according to others, a sound is heard in the bottle like the chirping of young birds. The operator then cuts his finger and inserts it into the bottle and the Polong sucks it. The person who thus supports the Polong is called his father, or, if it happens to be a woman, she is his mother. Every day the parent feeds it with his (or her) blood. The object of doing this and the advantage to be gained from it are these:—if he entertains a feeling of anger against any one he orders the Polong to go and afflict him, that is to say, to cause him pain or sickness; or if a third person is at enmity with another he goes in secret to the person who keeps the Polong, and gives him a sum of money to send the Polong to attack the person against whom he bears ill-will. This is the use of it. The person who is tormented by the Polong, whether a virgin, or a married woman, or a man, cries out and loses consciousness of what he (or she) is doing, and tears and throws off his (or her) clothing, biting and striking the people near, blind and deaf to everything, and does all sorts of other things.

Wise men are called in to prescribe remedies; some come and chant formulas over the head of the patient, others pinch his thumb and apply medicines to it. When the remedy is successful the sick person cries out, ‘Let me go, I want to go home.’ The doctor replies, ‘I will not let you go if you do not make known who it is that has sent you here, and why you have come, and who are your father and mother.’ Sometimes he (the Polong in the patient) remains silent and will not confess or give the names of his parents; sometimes he confesses, and says ‘Let me go, my father is such-a-one and lives at such-and-such a kampong, and my mother is so-and-so. The reason that I have come here is that such-a-one came to my parents and asked for their aid, and gave them a sum of money because he bore ill-will against this person’ (or whatever the reason may have been). Sometimes he makes a false statement, and mentions entirely wrong persons in order to conceal the names of his parents. As soon as the people know the name of the person who has contrived the attack and the reason, they let him go, and the sick person at once recovers his consciousness, but he is left weak and feeble. When a Polong attacks a person and will confess nothing, the person who is attacked shrieks and yells in anger, and after a day or two he dies. After death blood pours forth bubbling (ber-kopak-kopak) from the mouth, and the whole body is blue with bruises.”—Hikayat Abdullah, p. 143. Notes and Queries, S.B.R.A.S. No. 4, sec. 98, issued with No. 17 of the Journal. ↑

13Mĕrepet kata kuching. ↑

14 Cp. Clifford, In Court and Kampong, pp. 230–244. “Pôlong and pĕlsit are but other names for bâjang, the latter is chiefly used in the state of Kĕdah, where it is considered rather chic to have a pĕlsit. A Kĕdah lady the other day, eulogising the advantage of possessing a familiar spirit (she said that, amongst other things, it gave her absolute control over her husband and the power of annoying people who offended her), thus described the method of securing this useful ally:—

“‘You go out,’ she said, ‘on the night before the full moon, and stand with your back to the moon, and your face to an ant-hill, so that your shadow falls on the ant-hill. Then you recite certain jampi (incantations), and bending forward try to embrace your shadow. If you fail, try again several times, repeating more incantations. If not successful, go the next night and make a further effort, and the night after, if necessary—three nights in all. If you cannot then catch your shadow, wait till the same day on the following month and renew the attempt. Sooner or later you will succeed, and, as you stand there in the brilliance of the moonlight, you will see that you have drawn your shadow into yourself, and your body will never again cast a shade. Go home, and in the night, whether sleeping or waking, the form of a child will appear before you and put out its tongue; that seize, and it will remain while the rest of the child disappears. In a little while the tongue will turn into something that breathes, a small animal, reptile, or insect, and when you see the creature has life put it in a bottle and the pĕlsit is yours.’

“It sounds easy enough, and one is not surprised to hear that every one in Kĕdah, who is anybody, keeps a pĕlsit.” Swett., Malay Sketches, pp. 197, 198. ↑

15 No less than seven “Bidans,” it is said, were formerly requisitioned at the birth of a Raja’s child, and occasions when even nine are mentioned are to be met with in Malay romances. The most general custom, however, seems to have been to summon seven “Bidans” only, the number being possibly due to the Malay theory of a sevenfold soul (v. Soul). The profession was an honourable one, and the Bidans received the title of “Dato’ (abbreviated to ’Toh) Bidan”; but if the child of a Raja happened to die, the Bidan who was adjudged to be responsible paid the penalty with her life. ↑

16Vide also N. & Q. No. 3, sec. 65, issued with J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 16. ↑

17 If the betel-leaf adheres to the chĕrana it is a bad sign (uri mĕlĕkat tiada mahu k’luar). ↑

18Vide p. 551, infra. ↑

19Vide App. clxxxiv. ↑

20 So, too, in the report of the Dutch Expedition to Mid-Sumatra, vol. i. p. 266, it is stated that delivery took place “in a sitting posture.” ↑

21T’rong asam. ↑

22 One account says that the Pĕnanggalan (or Manjang, i.e. Pĕmanjangan another name for her) if she comes will be caught in this snare, and that next morning when the fowls are let loose out of the fowl-house they will peck at the sac of her stomach to get at its contents. Thus she will be detected, and can be punished by having her stomach filled up with ground glass and sherds of earthenware, which will kill her in about seven days’ time! ↑

23 When the “sickness” is severe, the Bidan draws upon her almost inexhaustible stock of Malay charms, a specimen of which will be found in the Appendix. Salt and asam are taken (apparently by the Bidan?) into the mouth (di-kĕmam asam garam) while the selected charm is repeated. ↑

24Vide McNair, Perak and the Malays, p. 231. “The children of the Malays are received into the world quite in religious form, prayer being said, and the Azan or Allah Akbar pronounced by the father with his lips close to the tender infant’s ear.” The bang, according to ’Che Sam, a Malay pandit of Kuala Lumpor, ran somewhat as follows:—Allahu Akbar (twice), ashahadun la-ilaha-illa-’llah (twice), ashahadun Muhammad al-Rasul Allah (twice), hei ʿAli al-saleh (twice), hei ʿAli al-faleh (twice), Allahu akbar (twice), la-ilaha-illa-’llah (twice); and the kamat as follows:—

Allahu akbar (twice), ashahadun la-ilaha-illa-’llah, ashahadun Muhammad al-Rasul Allah. Hei ʿAli al-saleh, hei ʿAli al-faleh, kad kamat al-salata (twice), la-ilaha-illa-’llah. ↑

25Vide App. cl. ↑

26 Mr. H. N. Ridley, Director of Gardens and Forests at Singapore, in a pamphlet on Malay Materia Medica (dated 1894) describes a somewhat similar ceremony as follows:—

“When a child suffers from sampuh pachut, that is to say, when it persistently cries and will not take its food, it is treated in the following way: the leaves of Hedyotis congesta, Br., a tall jungle weed, known as Lida Jin [lidah jin, lit. Demon’s Tongue] or Poko’ Sampuh Pachut, are boiled with some other leaves till one-third of the liquor is evaporated, and the decoction exposed to the dew for a night, and the child is bathed with it; or a quantity of road-side rubbish, dead-leaves, sticks, chewed sugar-cane, etc. is boiled and the child is bathed in the liquid (it is washed afterwards), and it is then smoked over a fire consisting of a nest of a weaver-bird (sarang tampur), the skin of a bottle-gourd (labu), and a piece of wood which has been struck by lightning.” ↑

27Kur, sĕmangat Muhammad ini! Kur, sĕmangat Fatimah ini! ↑

28Vide pp. 353–355, infra. ↑

29 Of the Pahang customs Mr. Clifford writes:—

“Umat rushes off to the most famous midwife in the place, and presents her with a little brass dish filled with smooth green sîrih leaves, and sixpence of our money (25 cents) in copper, for such is the retaining fee prescribed by Malay custom. The recipient of these treasures is thereafter held bound to attend the patient whenever she may be called upon to do so, and when the confinement is over she can claim other moneys in payment of her services. These latter fees are not ruinously high, according to our standard, two dollars being charged for attending a woman in her first confinement, a dollar or a dollar and a half on the next occasion, and twenty-five, or at the most fifty cents being deemed sufficient for each subsequent event.”—Clifford, Studies in Brown Hum., pp. 47, 48. ↑