Ashore ye shall get no food,
But gape (in vain) about the world.
By the grace of,” etc.Sometimes the crocodile-spirit is requested to act as the forwarding agent in the
transaction; thus we find a short lanchang-charm running as follows:—
“Ho, Elder of the Sloping Bank, Jambu Agai,^141
Receive this (lanchang) and forward it to the River-Bay,
It is So-and-So who presents it.
Sa-rĕkong is the name of the (spirit of the) Bay,
Sa-rĕking the name of the (spirit of the) Cape,
Si ʿAbas, their child, is the rocky islet;
I ask (you) to forward this present at once to the God of Mid-currents.”A somewhat longer charm, which is given in the Appendix, commences by
making an interesting point—
“Peace be with you! O crew newly come from your shipwrecked barque on the
high seas,
Spurned by the billows, blown about by the gale;
Come on board (this lanchang) in turn and get you food.”
. . . . . . . . .
The speaker goes on to say that he recognises their right to levy toll all over the
country, and has made this lanchang for them as a substitute (tukar ganti),
implying, no doubt, in place of the one which they had lost. In any case,
however, there can be little doubt that the “barque wrecked on the high seas” is
the wasted body of the sick man, of which the spirits were so recently in
possession, and in substitution for which they are offered the spirit-boat in
question.
Tiger Spirit
I shall now proceed to describe the ceremony of invoking the Tiger Spirit for the