reached its highest development, and that his miracles were mostly miracles of medicine;
whereas in Mohammed’s time eloquence had attained its climax, and, accordingly, his miracles
were those of eloquence, as shown in the Koran and Ahadis.”—The Book of the Thousand
Nights and a Night, Burton, vol. v. p. 30.—Notes and Queries, J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 4, sec. 92,
issued with No. 17. ↑
137
Vide pp. 569–574, infra. ↑
138
Vide pp. 418 seqq., supra.
Strictly speaking, money (which is called batu-batu lanchang or lanchang stones) should
always form part of them. In Kedah three kĕndĕri (one kĕndĕri amounting to three cents) are
said to be used; in Perak three wang, and in Selangor three duits (cents). ↑
139
I believe this usually takes place immediately after the ceremony, but one medicine-man whom
I knew (’Che Amal of Jugra) used to keep the boat into which the spirits were thought to have
entered until the patient recovered, and then set it adrift. When the medicine-man is launching
it, he takes the boat in both hands, and repeatedly gives it a rotatory movement towards the left
(as if he were using a sieve), and repeats the charm. A small portion of each dish deposited in
the lanchang has to be carried back to the patient’s house, and there administered to the
patient, together with water scooped up in a bowl from underneath the lanchang as it lay in the
water before drifting away. As the sick man receives the offerings, the person who administers
them says, addressing the spirit of evil, “Here is your wage, return not back here unto So-and-
So; and cause him to be sick no more,” and the spirit replies through the man’s mouth, “I will
never return.” ↑
140
Arong also means “to cross the water,” and there may be some doubt as to the precise meaning
of this line. See the original in App. cciv. ↑
141
i.e. the Crocodile-spirit (vide pp. 286 (note), 298, supra.) ↑
142
In this connection it may be added that there are sundry medical “taboos” in use on various
occasions: e.g. it is sometimes forbidden to enter the house where the sick man lies or to
approach it by a particular path, and a string, with cocoa-nut leaves hung on it, is often drawn
across the path as an indication of such prohibition. The fine for breaking such a taboo
(langgar gawar-gawar) was “half a bhara,” or in the case of a Raja “two bharas.” ↑