“The Upas loses its venom,
And Poison loses its venom,
And the Sea-Snake loses its venom,
And the poison-tree of Borneo loses its venom,
Everything that is venomous loses its venom,
By virtue of my use of the Prayer of the Magic Bezoar-Stone.”Of the sea-snake (ular gerang) I was told that it was about two cubits in length,
and that it was the most poisonous snake in existence; “In fact,” my informant
declared, “if your little finger is bitten by it you must cut off the finger; if your
oar-blade is bitten by it you must throw away the oar.”^130 And again of the Ipoh,
or “upas” (which is one of the chief ingredients in the blow-gun poison used by
the wild tribes), I was told that if a man who was “struck” by it was supported by
another his supporter would die, and that so far from its virulence becoming then
exhausted, it would even kill a person who was seven times removed, in point of
contact, from the person originally affected.^131
The above charm terminates as follows:—
“Let this my prayer be sharp as steel,
Swift as lightning,
Fleet as the wind!
Grant this by virtue of my use of the prayer of Dato’ Malim Karimun,
Who has become a saint through religious penance
Performed at the headwaters of the river of Saïran in the interior of Egypt,
By the grace of,” etc.I may add that when you are collecting the materials for a neutralising ceremony
(tawar) the following formula should be used:—
“Not mine are these materials,
They are the materials of Kĕmal-ul-hakim;^132
Not to me belongs this neutralising charm,
To Malim Saidi belongs this neutralising charm.
It is not I who apply it,
It is Malim Karimun who applies it.”