XVI MAGIC, SPELLS, AND CHARMS 117 



be among Kayans or Kenyahs. They are not 

 professional sorcerers, i.e, their help is not called in 

 by other persons who wish to work evil on their 

 enemies, for others do not dare to do this. At the 

 present time in Sarawak, if a man accuses another 

 of practising tepang, he is liable to be sued for libel 

 and fined.^ 



Black Magic 



The most important of the magical practices is 

 one known and occasionally resorted to among all 

 the peoples for the purpose of bringing about the 

 death of a personal enemy. We describe the pro- 

 cedure as carried out by the Sebops (Klemantans), 

 but in all essentials the account holds good for all 

 or nearly all the peoples. It is not usual to invoke 

 the aid of any recognised magician. The man 

 whose heart is filled with hatred against another 

 will retire secretly to a spot at the edge of a padi 

 field, or of some other clearing, where he can see 

 a large expanse of sky and yet feel sure of being 

 unobserved. Here he sets up the batang pra, a 

 pole supported horizontally some six or eight feet 

 above the ground, its ends resting on two vertical 

 poles. A little figure of a man or woman (according 

 to the sex of the person aimed at), which has been 

 carved for the purpose out of soft wood, is fixed 

 upright in the ground beneath the batang pra. 

 This is called tegulun kalingai usa, which, literally 

 translated, is *' the reflected image of the body." 

 The operator makes a fire beside the tegulun, digs 

 a small hole in the ground, and fills it with water 

 coloured with ferruginous earth. This pool is 



^ In a recent note in \ki^ Journal of the Sarawak Musgum, Jan. 191 1, Mr. 

 W. Howell states that the power of tau tepang is supposed to be transmitted 

 in certain families from generation to generation ; that the head of a tau tepang 

 man leaves his body at night and goes about doing harm, especially to the 

 crops ; that the power is passed on to a child of a tau tepang family by the 

 mother, who touches the cut edge of the child's tongue with her spittle. 



