Malay Magic _ Being an introduction to the - Walter William Skeat

been worn previously; a stick is run through it to serve as the arms of the figure,
and a (sterile) cocoa-nut shell (tĕmpurong jantan) clapped on the top to serve as
a head. The invocation is then chanted in the same manner and to the same
accompaniment as that used for the “Palm-blossom.” At its conclusion the
magician whispers, so to speak, into the fish-trap’s ear, bidding it “not to
disgrace him,” but rise up and dance, and the fish-trap presently commences to
rock to and fro, and to leap about in a manner which of course proves it to be
“possessed” by the spirit. Two different specimens of the invocations used will
be found in the Appendix.