original, having no connection with the nomenclature obtaining among nations
with which we are more familiar.^235
In addition to the above, the Malays possess a curious system by which the lunar
month is divided into a number of parts called Rĕjang. According to Newbold,
“the twenty-eight Rĕjangs resemble the Nacshatras or lunar mansions of the
Hindoos, rather than the Anwa of the Arabs”;^236 and it is a priori very probable
that they owe their origin to this Hindu system. But by the Malays their
application has been generally misunderstood, and their number is usually raised
to thirty so as to fit the days of the lunar month. Each of these divisions has its
symbol, which is usually an animal, and the first animal in the list is (in almost
all versions) the horse. A horse’s head is also the figure of the first of the Hindu
Nakshatras, but there seems to be little trace of identity in the remaining figures,
which for the sake of comparison are given, side by side with the Malay
symbols, in the Appendix. The Malays have embodied this system in a series of
mnemonic verses (known as Shaʿir Rĕjang), of which there are several versions,
e.g. the Rĕjang of ’Che Busu, the Rĕjang Sindiran Maiat, and others.^237
The Rĕjangs are also dealt with at length in prose treatises: one of these, which
identifies the Rĕjangs with the days of the lunar month, begins “on the first day
of the month, whose rĕjang is a horse, God Almighty created the prophet Adam;
this day is good for planting, travelling, and sailing, and trading on this day will
be profitable; it is also a good day for a wedding, and on this day it is lucky to be
attacked (i.e. in war), but rather unlucky to take the offensive; ... good news
received (at this time) is true, bad news is false; property lost (on this day) will
soon be recovered; the man who stole it is short of stature, with scanty hair, a
round face, a slender figure and a yellow complexion; the property has been
placed in a house, ... under the care of a dark man; ... if a child is born on this
day it will be extremely fortunate; if one is ill on this day, one will quickly
recover; the proper remedy for driving away the evil (tolak bala), is to make a
representation of a horse and throw it away towards the (East?)”^238 In other
respects this system of divination seems to agree in its main features with those
which have already been described.
Having mentioned the divisions of the calendar which are chiefly used in
divination, it seems desirable, for the sake of completeness, to allude briefly to
those that remain.