Malay Magic _ Being an introduction to the - Walter William Skeat

(Perpustakaan Sri Jauhari) #1
My  countenance like    the countenance of  the Prophet Joseph,
My brightness like the brightness of the Prophet Muhammad,
By virtue of my using this charm that was coeval with my birth,
And by grace of ‘There is no god but God,’” etc.

When personal attractions begin to wane with the lapse of years, invocations are
resorted to for the purpose of restoring the petitioner’s lost youth. In one of the
invocations referred to (which is said to have been used by the Princess of
Mount Ophir, Tuan Pŭtri Gunong Ledang, to secure perpetual youth), the
petitioner boasts that he (or she) was “born under the Inverted Banyan Tree,”
and claims the granting of the boon applied for “by virtue of the use of the
“Black Lĕnggundi Bush,” which when it has died, returns to life again,”^67 the
idea being, no doubt, that a judicious use of black magic will enable the
petitioner to “live backwards.”


The third class of invocations, for rendering the person formidable, belong rather
to the chapter on war, under which heading they will be included.

Free download pdf