Malay Magic _ Being an introduction to the - Walter William Skeat

leaves prepared with mystic ceremonies, which is carried at the bow for the
purpose. The omens are watched with exact care, and if they be adverse no
fishing-boat puts to sea that day. Every act in their lives is regulated by some
regard for the demons of the sea and air, and yet these folk are nominally
Muhammadans, and, according to that faith, magic and sorcery, incantations to
the spirits, and prayers to demons, are all unclean things forbidden to the people.
But the Fisher Folk, like other inhabitants of the Peninsula, are Malays first and
Muhammadans afterwards. Their religious creed goes no more than skin deep,
and affects but little the manner of their daily life.”^134