(Here mention the purpose to which you wish to put it.)
“If it is good, show me a good omen,
If it is bad, show me a bad omen.”^57Wrap the clod up in white cloth, and after fumigating it with incense, place it at
night beneath your pillow, and when you retire to rest repeat the last two lines of
the above charm as before and go to sleep. If your dream is good proceed with, if
bad desist from, your operations. Supposing your dream to be “good,” you must
(approximately) clear the site of the main building and peg out the four corners
with dead sticks; then take a dead branch and heap it up lightly with earth (in the
centre of the site?); set fire to it, and when the whole heap has been reduced to
ashes, sweep it all up together and cover it over while you repeat the charm
(which differs but little from that given above). Next morning uncover it early in
the morning and God will show you the good and the bad.
The site being finally selected, you must proceed to choose a day for erecting the
central house-post, by consulting first the schedule of lucky and unlucky months,
and next the schedule of lucky and unlucky days of the week.^58
[The best time of day for the operation to take place is said to be always seven
o’clock in the morning. Hence there seems to be no need to consult a schedule to
discover it, though some magicians may do so.]
The propitious moment having been at last ascertained, the erection of the
centre-post will be proceeded with. First, the hole for its reception must be dug
(the operation being accompanied by the recital of a charm) and the post erected,
the greatest precautions being taken to prevent the shadow of any of the workers
from falling either upon the post itself or upon the hole dug to receive it,
sickness and trouble being otherwise sure to follow.^59
[The account in the Appendix, of which the above is a résumé, omits to describe
the sacrifice which has to be made before the erection of the centre-post, which
has therefore been drawn from the instructions of other magicians.]
“When the hole has been dug and before the centre-post is actually erected, some
sort of sacrifice or offering has to be made. First you take a little brazilwood
(kayu sĕpang), a little ebony-wood (kayu arang), a little assafœtida (inggu), and