water, fumigate it with incense, and deposit it in the hole dug to receive the centre-post. Early
next morning take note of it; if it is still full of water, it is a good sign; if the water has wasted
(susut), a bad one. If live insects are found in it, it is a good sign, if dead ones, bad. There can,
however, be little doubt that the original victim of this sacrifice was a human victim (generally
perhaps a slave), for whom the buffalo was substituted (the goat, fowl, and egg representing
further successive stages in the depreciation of the rite). Malays on the Selangor coast more
than once told me they had heard that the Government was in the habit of burying a human
head under the foundations of any unusually large structure (e.g. a bridge), and two cases
where a local scare resulted from the prevalence of this idea were recorded in the local press
(the Malay Mail) in 1897. For similar traditions of human sacrifice, vide p. 211 infra. ↑
63
Vide App. lii. ↑
64
For other “categories” vide p. 559, infra. ↑
65
Another form of measurement was from the threshold (of the front door) to the end of the
house; but the method of augury in this case is not yet quite clear. ↑
66
This probably refers to the mystic Dragon which does duty (in Malay charm-books) as an
“aspect compass.” Vide Chap. VI. p. 561, infra, and App. cclvii. ↑
67
Audience hall. ↑
68
J.R.A.S., S.B. No. 9, pp. 85, 86. This is an extract from the Marong Mahawangsa, the legendary
history of Kedah, a State bordering on Lower Siam. The name Podisat (i.e. Bodhisattva)
indicates Indo-Chinese Buddhist influence. It does not seem to occur elsewhere in Malay
literature, though Buddhism flourished in Sumatra in the seventh century A.D. ↑
69
Of the rhinoceros not many superstitions are yet known. The rhinoceros horn, however (called
chula), is believed to be a powerful aphrodisiac, and there is supposed to be a species of “fiery”
rhinoceros (badak api) which is excessively dangerous if attacked. This latter is probably a
mere fable, vide Cliff., In Court and Kampong, p. 33. ↑
70
J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 7, pp. 23, 24. ↑