she comes will be caught in this snare, and that next morning when the fowls are let loose out
of the fowl-house they will peck at the sac of her stomach to get at its contents. Thus she will
be detected, and can be punished by having her stomach filled up with ground glass and sherds
of earthenware, which will kill her in about seven days’ time! ↑
23
When the “sickness” is severe, the Bidan draws upon her almost inexhaustible stock of Malay
charms, a specimen of which will be found in the Appendix. Salt and asam are taken
(apparently by the Bidan?) into the mouth (di-kĕmam asam garam) while the selected charm is
repeated. ↑
24
Vide McNair, Perak and the Malays, p. 231. “The children of the Malays are received into the
world quite in religious form, prayer being said, and the Azan or Allah Akbar pronounced by
the father with his lips close to the tender infant’s ear.” The bang, according to ’Che Sam, a
Malay pandit of Kuala Lumpor, ran somewhat as follows:—Allahu Akbar (twice), ashahadun
la-ilaha-illa-’llah (twice), ashahadun Muhammad al-Rasul Allah (twice), hei ʿAli al-saleh
(twice), hei ʿAli al-faleh (twice), Allahu akbar (twice), la-ilaha-illa-’llah (twice); and the
kamat as follows:—
Allahu akbar (twice), ashahadun la-ilaha-illa-’llah, ashahadun Muhammad al-Rasul Allah.
Hei ʿAli al-saleh, hei ʿAli al-faleh, kad kamat al-salata (twice), la-ilaha-illa-’llah. ↑
25
Vide App. cl. ↑
26
Mr. H. N. Ridley, Director of Gardens and Forests at Singapore, in a pamphlet on Malay
Materia Medica (dated 1894) describes a somewhat similar ceremony as follows:—
“When a child suffers from sampuh pachut, that is to say, when it persistently cries and will
not take its food, it is treated in the following way: the leaves of Hedyotis congesta, Br., a tall
jungle weed, known as Lida Jin [lidah jin, lit. Demon’s Tongue] or Poko’ Sampuh Pachut, are
boiled with some other leaves till one-third of the liquor is evaporated, and the decoction
exposed to the dew for a night, and the child is bathed with it; or a quantity of road-side
rubbish, dead-leaves, sticks, chewed sugar-cane, etc. is boiled and the child is bathed in the
liquid (it is washed afterwards), and it is then smoked over a fire consisting of a nest of a
weaver-bird (sarang tampur), the skin of a bottle-gourd (labu), and a piece of wood which has
been struck by lightning.” ↑
27
Kur, sĕmangat Muhammad ini! Kur, sĕmangat Fatimah ini! ↑