“The successful practice of (Malay) medicine must be based on the fundamental
principle of ‘preserving the balance of power’ among the four elements. This is
chiefly to be effected by constant attention to, and moderation in, diet. To
enforce these golden precepts, passages from the Korān are plentifully quoted
against excess in eating or drinking. Air, they say, is the cause of heat and
moisture, and earth of cold and dryness. They assimilate the constitution and
passions of man to the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and the seven planets, etc.”
“The mysterious sympathy between man and external nature ... was the basis of
that system of supernatural magic which prevailed in Europe during the Middle
Ages.”^116
The foregoing quotation shows that the distinctive features of the Aristotelian
hygienic theory, as borrowed by the Arabs, did eventually filter through (in some
cases) until they reached the Malays. Such direct references, however, to Greek
theories are of the rarest character, and can hardly be considered typical.
Most of the more important rites practised by the Malay medicine-men
(Bomor^117 ) may be divided into two well-defined parts. Commencing with a
ceremonial “inspection” (the counterpart of our modern “diagnosis”), the Bomor
proceeds to carry out a therapeutic ceremony, the nature of which is decided by
the results of the “inspection.” For the purposes of the diagnosis he resorts to
divination, by means of omens taken from the smoke of the burning censer, from
the position of coins thrown into water-jars (batu buyong), and parched rice
floating upon the water’s surface.
The therapeutic rites, on the other hand, may be roughly classified as follows
according to their types:^118 —
- Propitiatory Ceremonies (limas, ambangan, etc.).