sacrifice. They were then duly deposited in the tray by the Pawang. Five waxen
tapers, to “light the spirits to their food,” were next “charmed” and lighted, and
planted in the centre and four corners respectively.
Finally, no doubt for the spirits’ after-dinner enjoyment, five “chews” of betel-
leaf and five native-made cigarettes (tobacco rolled in strips of palm-leaf), were
charmed and actually lighted at a lamp, and deposited in the tray with the other
offerings, and at the same time five 50 cent (silver) pieces of Straits money,
called “tray-stones,” were added to the medley, evidently with the object of
preventing the good temper of the spirits from being disturbed by “shortness of
cash.”
The loading of the tray being now complete, the Pawang walked thrice round the
patient (who was still overshadowed by the tray), and passed the censer round
him thrice. Standing then with his face to the east, so as to look in the same
direction as the patient, he grasped the “suspenders” of the tray with both hands
at their converging point, and thrice muttered a charm, giving a downward tug to
the cord of the tray at the end of each repetition. This done, he removed the
yellow cloth from his head, and fastened it round the tray-cord at the point where
the “suspenders” converged, and then “waved” the offering by causing the
loaded tray with its flaring tapers to swing slowly backwards and forwards just
over the patient’s head. Next, letting the tray slowly down and detaching it from
the cord, at the converging point, he again “waved” it slowly to and fro amid the
flaring of the tapers, seven times in succession, and held it out for the patient to
spit into. When this was done he sallied out into the darkness of the night
carrying the tray, and gaining the jungle, suspended it from a tree (of the kind
called pĕtai bĕlalang) which had been selected that very day for the purpose. A
white ant, immediately settling upon the offering, was hailed by the Malays
present with great delight as a sign that the spirits had accepted the offering,
whereupon we all returned to the house and the company broke up. The
ceremony had commenced about 8 P.M., and lasted about an hour and a half, and
the number of people present was fourteen, seven male and seven female, which
was the number stipulated by the Pawang.
Another form of “propitiation” (buang-buangan limas) ceremony consists in
loading a limas with the offerings. The limas is a receptacle of about a span (sa-
jĕngkal) in length, made of banana-leaf folded together at the ends and skewered
with a bamboo pin. Inside it are deposited the offerings, which consist of the