- PERSONAL CEREMONIES AND CHARMS
Ceremonies and charms for protecting or rendering the person more attractive or
formidable, form one of the largest, but not perhaps the most interesting or
important division of the medicine-man’s repertory.
The following remarkable specimen of the charms belonging to the first of these
classes was given me by ’Che ʿAbas of Klanang in Selangor, a Kelantan Malay:
—
“If the corpse in the grave should speak,
And address people on earth,
May I be destroyed by any beast that has life,
But if the corpse in the grave do not speak,
And address people on earth,
May I not be destroyed by any beast that has life, or by any foe or peril, or by
any son of the human race.
And if the chicken in the egg should crow,
And call to chickens on earth,
May I be destroyed by any beast that has life,
But if the chicken in the egg do not crow,”
(etc. etc., as before.)
As a general rule, however, this particular class of charms shows particularly
strong traces of Arabic influence, most often, perhaps, taking the form of an
injunction (addressed to Jins or Angels) to watch over the person of the
petitioner.