mat, near a tray containing a censer and the three kinds of sacrificial rice.
The magician (’Che Ganti by name) commenced the performance by playing a
prelude on his violin. Presently his wife (an aged Selangor woman) took some of
the rice in her hand and commenced to chant the words of the invocation, she
being almost immediately joined in the chant by a younger woman. Starting with
the words, “Thus I brace up, I brace up the Palm-blossom” (’ku anggit mayang
’ku anggit), their voices rose higher and higher until the seventh stanza was
reached, when the old woman covered the two sheaves of Palm-blossom with a
Malay plaid skirt (sarong) and the usual “five cubits of white cloth” (folded
double), both of which had of course first been fumigated. Then followed seven
more stanzas (“Borrow the hammer, Borrow the anvil,” and its companion
verses), and rice having been thrown over one of the sheaves of palm-blossom,
its sheath was opened and the contents fumigated. Then the old woman took the
newly-fumigated sheaf between her hands, and the chant recommenced with the
third septet of stanzas (“Dig up, dig up, the wild ginger plant”), as the erect
palm-blossom swayed from side to side in time to the music. Finally the fiddle
stopped and tambourines were substituted, and at this point the sheaf of blossom
commenced to jump about on its stalk, as if it were indeed possessed, and
eventually dashed itself upon the ground. After one or two repetitions of this
performance, other persons present were invited to try it, and did so with varying
success, which depended, I was told, upon the impressionability of their souls, as
the palm-blossom would not dance for anybody whose soul was not
impressionable (lĕmah sĕmangat).
When the first blossom-sheaf had been destroyed by the rough treatment which
it had to undergo, the second was duly fumigated and introduced to the
company, and finally the performance was brought to a close by the chanting of
the stanzas in which the spirit is requested to return to his own place. The two
spoiled sheaves of blossom were then carried respectfully out of the house and
laid on the ground beneath a banana-tree.
The Dancing Fish-trap (main lukah) is a spiritualistic performance, in which a
fish-trap (lukah) is substituted for the sheaf of palm-blossom, and a different
invocation is used. In other respects there is very little difference between the
two. The fish-trap is dressed up much in the same way as a “scare-crow,” so as
to present a rough and ready resemblance to the human figure, i.e. it is dressed in
a woman’s coat and plaid skirt (sarong), both of which must, if possible, have