Volume 1

Miscellaneous papers relating to Indo-China and the Indian Archipelago : second series / [published by Reinhold Rost].

Reinhold Rost

Date:: 1887

Credit: Miscellaneous papers relating to Indo-China and the Indian Archipelago : second series / [published by Reinhold Rost]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$generally in intercourse with the Malays, have necessarily been obliged to learn certain truths from them, which are common with us; and I only maintain here, that they have not learnt them only from the Malays, whose religion they have not adopted, seeing that they do not recognize Mohammed as a prophet or a messenger of God, and that they call him Tuhan Isa (the Lord Jesus), whom they are in the habit of calling upon in the hour of death, praying him to take their souls to heaven. The Mantras place and find a demon everywhere—in the air they breathe, in the soil they till, in the forests they inhabit, in the water they drink, in the trees they fell, and in the caves of the rocks. Their idea is, that a demon is the cause of every unlucky event. If they are ill, it is a demon who is the cause of it; if there is an accident, it is still the bad spirit who is the cause of it; hence the demon is named after the evil he is supposed to be the cause of. Consequently, as the demon is supposed to be the author of every unlucky event, all their superstitions turn upon enchantments and on spells to appease the evil spirit, and to make ferocious animals gentle and tractable. If they want to excite sensual love, hatred, and jealousy, they have recourse to lemu or witchcraft. Persuaded that every evil is caused by a demon, they try to pacify it or compel it, by certain observances called tankal, to quit its abode. After procuring certain herbs and roots, they pronounce some magic words, which they do not even understand, take the medicine to the sick person, and enjoin on him certain foolish prohibitions ; another time they suspend little packets of saffron and terak round his neck, over which they also pronounce some magic words. This is what we call amulets and talismans. The Pcivans* and other magicians, who possess the power of afflicting men by their hidden science, cannot operate on all kinds of people ; there are several of these, who, by a supernatural art, know how to surround themselves with invisible armour, so to speak, which renders the charm useless, and prevents the fiavan from seeing in the water the image of the person he wants to harm. If a magician wants to harm a person, he must be able to see his image in the water, and a gentle breeze must blow in the direction of the dwelling of the person he intends to operate upon. Generally the fiavan, who wants to harm his enemy by means of his diabolical art, tries to get some of his hair or anything which belonged to him, even if it is only the remains of what he has eaten ; he then practises his incantation on what he has been able to lay hands on, throws it on a fruit or anything else, which he then hides in the earth ; * The Pavans are the sages and doctors of the tribe. They are generally dreaded by the Mantras, but the Malays have a great veneration for them. There are some pavans who are only clever at discovering tin mines; these -?ire the lima-fiavans. \_Pdwang andpoyang are convertible terms.]$