have achieved unless “possessed.” When it is time for her to recover her senses
she is called upon by name, and if that fails to recall her, is bathed all over with
cocoa-nut milk (ayer niyor hijau).
The foregoing does not, of course, in any way exhaust the list of Malay dances.
Others will be found described in various parts of this book, amongst them the
“Henna Dance” (at weddings); the medicine-man’s dance, as performed at the
bedside of a sick person; the dance performed in honour of a dead tiger;
theatrical dances, and many kinds of sword and dagger dances, or posture-
dances (such as the main bĕrsilat, or main bĕrpĕnchak), whether performed for
the diversion of the beholders or by way of defiance (as in war). The main dabus
is a dance performed with a species of iron spits, whose upper ends are furnished
with hoops, upon which small iron rings are strung, and which accordingly give
out a jingling noise when shaken. Two of these spits (buah dabus) are charmed
(to deaden their bite), and taken up, one in each hand, by the dancer, who shakes
them at each step that he takes. When he is properly possessed, he drives the
points of these spits through the muscle of each forearm, and lets them hang
down whilst he takes up a second pair. He then keeps all four spits jingling at
once until the dance ceases. The point of each spit goes right through the muscle,
but if skilfully done, draws no blood.^154