pigeons there which illustrate the practice, common in Buddhist countries, of
releasing an animal in order to gain ‘merit’ thereby.” At a shrine on the Langat
river I have seen fowls which had (I was told) been similarly released.
Mr. Blagden’s remarks apply with equal force to the services performed at the
shrines of Selangor, and I believe also of other States. It should, however, I
think, be pointed out that the nasi kunyit (yellow rice) is, usually at all events,
eaten by those who take part in the service. At a ceremony which was held on
one occasion after my recovery from sickness, and in which, by request, I took
part,^16 incense was burnt, and Muhammadan prayers chanted, after which the
usual strip of white cloth (five cubits in length) was laid upon the saint’s grave
(the saint being the father of the present Sultan of Selangor), and the party then
adjourned to a shelter some twenty or thirty yards lower down the hill, where,
first the men, and then the women and children, partook of the flesh of the
slaughtered goat and the saffron-stained rice (pulut). After the meal the Bilal
(mosque attendant, who was present with the Malay headman and the local
priest of the mosque), returned to the tomb, and making obeisance, recited a
Muhammadan prayer, craving permission to take the cloth back for his own use,
which he presently did. These Bilals are needy men and live upon the alms of the
devout, so I suppose he thought there was no reason why the saint should not
contribute something to his support.
The burning of incense is one of the very simplest, and hence commonest, forms
of burnt sacrifice. Some magicians say that it should be accompanied by an
invocation addressed to the Spirit of Incense, which should be besought, as in
the example quoted below, to “pervade the seven tiers of earth and sky
respectively.” It would appear that the intention of the worshipper is to ensure
that his “sacrifice of sweet savour” should reach the nostrils of the gods and help
to propitiate them, wherever they may be, by means of a foretaste of offerings to
follow. This invocation, however, is not unfrequently omitted, or at least slurred
over by the worshipper, in spite of the contention of the magicians who use it,
that “without it the spell merely rises like smoke which is blown away by the
wind.” The following is one form of the invocation in question:—
Zabur^17 Hijau is your name, O Incense,
Zabur Bajang the name of your Mother,
Zabur Puteh the name of your Fumes,