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

1Kapar, Klang, Langat: the Pawang (magician) mentions, by way of example, the names of three places on the Selangor coast which he wishes to visit in succession during the day “if the wind will listen to him.” The Pawang who told me this was a Kapar man (’Che ʿAkob). ↑

2 The first two lines are no doubt (as elsewhere) a sort of rhymed memoria technica, intended to “memorise” the accessories required for the rite. The tortoise here would appear to be a symbol of rain, as among the Sakais (wild tribes) of the Malay Peninsula. v. Haddon, Evolution of Art, p. 246. Can the “white” (or gray?) “ones” be the two lizards; and the “black one” the tortoise? The grass lizards are of various colours. ↑

3 The rice-spoon is a favourite weapon against spirits of evil, v. Maxwell in J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 7, p. 19, which describes how a woman in travail is armed with a [rice-] spoon during an eclipse. ↑

4 Pĕngiran Chĕmcha, which I translate Prince Rice-spoon, appears to be a mock title of Bornean origin. Thus we read that “Pĕngiran” or “Pangeran” is the title of the four Ministers of State (wazirs) in Brunei, one of whom was called Pĕngiran Pamancha, of which the present name (Pĕngiran Chĕmcha) looks like a corruption.—J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 20, p. 36. ↑

5 Inverted (I was given to understand), by way of symbolising the vault of heaven—a good example of sympathetic magic. ↑

6 For other superstitions about the cat, vide pp. 190–192, infra. ↑

7 The mĕranti is a fine hard-wood forest tree. ↑

8i.e. “May we be well sheltered.” ↑

9Vide p. 93, supra. ↑

10 The proverbs referred to are to be found in the collections of proverbs sent by Mr. Maxwell to Nos. 1, 2, and 3 of the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. The numbers are consecutive.

4. Apa guna-nia merak mengigal di hutan?

“What is the use of the peacock strutting in the jungle?”

The idea is that the beauty of the bird is thrown away when exhibited in a lonely spot where there is none to admire it.

72. Seperti ponggok merindu bulan.

“As the owl sighs longingly to the moon.”

A figure often used by Malays in describing the longing of a lover for his mistress. It recalls a line in Gray’s “Elegy,” “The moping owl doth to the moon complain.” [As to the story connected with the ponggok, vide infra, p. 122. Cpt. Kelham, vide infra, supposes the ponggok to be Scops lempiji, Horsf.]

73. Seperti kuang mekik di-puchuk gunong.

“Like the argus pheasant calling on the mountain peak.”

Another poetical simile for a complaining lover. Here he is compared to a lonely bird sounding its note far from all companions.

93. Seperti tetegok di-rumah tinggal.

“Like the night-jar at a deserted house.”

The tegok or tetegok is a bird common in the Malay Peninsula, whose habits are nocturnal and solitary. It has a peculiar, liquid, monotonous call. The phrase is used to signify the solitude and loneliness of a stranger in a Malay kampong.

Elsewhere (in notes afterwards published in the Selangor Journal) (vol. i. No. 23, p. 360) Sir W. E. Maxwell says “The burong tetegok is not a night bird, but flies by day. It can be distinguished by its short rapid note, which resembles tegok-tegok-tegok-tegok.” Apparently Sir W. E. Maxwell identifies this bird with the Malay night-jar (Caprimulgus macrurus. Horsf.) described by Capt. Kelham, in No. 9, page 122 of the J.R.A.S., S.B. None of the Dutch Dictionaries identify it clearly, though Klinkert (probably wrongly) identifies it with the small owl called ponggok, which is taken by Capt. Kelham to be Scops lĕmpiji, Horsf. ↑

11Gerda meniumur kepah-nia. ↑

12 Another fabulous bird which Maxwell does not mention is the Walimana (which I have more than once heard called Wilmana in Selangor). On the identity of this bird, my friend Mr. Wilkinson, of the Straits Civil Service, sends me in a letter the following note:—“The word is walimana. I have often met it in old MSS. written The ‘wali’ is the same as the second word in Rajawali. The mana is ‘human’; cp. man, manushya, etc. The walimana in old Javanese pottery is represented as a bird with a human head, a sort of harpy. In the Hikayat Sang Samba it is the steed of Maharaja Boma, and repeatedly speaks to its master.” ↑

13Laksana jintayu menantikan hujan “as the jintayu awaits the rain,” is a proverbial simile for a state of anxiety and despondency. Jintayu = Jatayu (Sanskrit), a fabulous vulture. ↑

14

The chandrawasi, bird of power,

Is closely hidden among the clouds.

Anxiety reigns in my heart,

Each day that I see not my love.

[To the above I may perhaps be allowed to add that the (dialectal) form chandrawasir is the form generally used in the southern part of Selangor (where the final “r” is still commonly preserved). The regular (Dictionary) form of the word, however, appears to be chandrawasih or chĕndĕrawaseh (the forms chĕndărawangsa, chĕndĕrawasa, and chĕndĕrawangseh being also found). In origin the word is undoubtedly Sanskrit.

It means the Bird of Paradise, but in those Malay countries where the Bird of Paradise is unknown, it is also applied to other birds, such as (in Malay romances) to the golden oriole and even to the ostrich. In the Malay Peninsula, too, it is said to fly feet upwards (which peculiarity it shares, according to Mr. Clifford, with the Berek-berek, Pub. J.R.A.S., S.B., Hik. Raj. Budiman, pt. ii. 35), and its eggs are sometimes said, on falling, to develop into the snake called chintamani. It is always considered lucky, and the “Bird of Paradise Prayer,” (doʿa chĕndrawasi) as it is called, generally takes an important place in the formulas recited at the ceremonies connected with the Rice-soul, q.v. For the confusion between the chĕndrawasi and berek-berek (probably due to the fact that the chĕndrawasi, or Bird of Paradise, is not to be found in the Peninsula) vide note on App. xxx.] ↑

15 The baberek appears to be yet another name for the goat-sucker or night-jar (Caprimulgus macrurus, Horsf.) Dawn of History, page 171. ↑

16 As it appears that in Europe, at all events, the legend of the Wild Huntsman and his dogs (or Gabriel’s Hounds, as they are often called) is explained by the cries of wild geese flying overhead on dark nights, it seems most convenient to give the Malay legend in connection with the birds with which the Malays associate him. The explanation to which I refer is to be found in Prof. Newton’s Dictionary of Birds (1893), sub voce “Gabble-ratchet.” I quote in extenso:—

“In many parts of England, but especially in Yorkshire, the cries of some kind of wild goose,17 when flying by night, are heard with dismay by those who do not know the cause of them, and are attributed to ‘Gabriel’s Hounds,’ an expression equivalent to ‘Gabble-ratchet,’ a term often used for them, as in this sense gabble is said to be a corruption of Gabriel, and that, according to some mediæval glossaries, is connected with gabbara or gabares, a word meaning a corpse (cp. Way, Promptorium Parvulorum, p. 320, sub voce ‘Lyche’); while ratchet is undoubtedly the same as the Anglo-Saxon ræce and Middle English racche or rache, a dog that hunts by scent and gives tongue. Hence the expression would originally mean ‘corpse-hounds,’ and possibly has to do with legends such as that of the Wild Huntsman.... The sounds are at times very marvellous, not to say impressive, when heard, as they almost invariably are, on a pitch-dark night, and it has more than once happened within the writer’s knowledge that a flock of geese, giving utterance to them, has continued for some hours to circle over a town or village in such a way as to attract the attention of the most unobservant of its inhabitants, and inspire with terror those among them who are prone to superstition. (Cp. Atkinson, Notes and Queries, ser. 4, vii. pp. 439, 440, and Cleveland Glossary, p. 203; Herrtage, Catholicon Anglicum, p. 147; Robinson, Glossary Whitby, (Engl. Dial. Soc.) p. 74; and Addy, Glossary Sheffield (Engl. Dial. Soc.) p. 83. Mr. Charles Swainson (Prov. Names, Br.

B., p. 98), gives ‘Gabble-ratchet’ as a name of the night-jar, but satisfactory proof of that statement seems to be wanting.”18 ↑

17 Prof. Newton here has a note: “Presumably the BRANT, on the rare occasions when, losing its way, it comes inland, for the call-notes proceeding from a flock of this species curiously resemble the sound of hounds in full cry (Thompson, B. Irel. iii. p. 59), though some hearers liken them to the yelping of puppies. The discrepancy may to some extent depend on distance.” ↑

18 Possibly the sounds made by the geese might be attributed to the night-jar by peasants through the latter’s appearing at the time they were made. It is curious that the Malays as well should connect the night-jar with the Wild Huntsman. ↑

19 Selangor Malays add further that his whole body became overgrown with orchids, a conceit which recalls their story of a local hero who went on swimming in the sea until his body became covered with oysters! ↑