SHAMANISM IN PERAK. 2£9 



completely baffled. But think of what the patient lias had to undergo 

 at the hands of the unsuccessful competitors, before the right man 

 takes the case in hand ! Think of all the doses administered by 

 rival doctors, or prepared by sympathetic friends, each one assured 

 that he is going to cure the disease and win the King's favour ! I 

 have been reminded of these things sometimes when I have seen or 

 heard something of the treatment adopted in Malay families in 

 cases of dangerous illness. In the household of a Perak Raja, 

 carte blanclis would be given to any one representing himself to 

 have a remedy, on the occasion of a desperate sickness such as that 

 which called for the scenes which I have imperfectly described. Any 

 medicine offered would be gratefully received and administered, and 

 very likely, before it could possibly take effect, some one else's pres* 

 cription would be poured down the patient's throat on the top of 

 it. It is thought to be a mark of sympathy and solicitude to sug- 

 gest and prepare remedies, and they are usually accepted and tried 

 in turn, to the imminent danger, I should imagine, of the unfor- 

 tunate person experimented on. When a child is born in a royal 

 house in Perak, all the old ladies in the country concoct and send 

 to the scene of the interesting event doses called salusuh, which the 

 mother has to swallow with great impartiality. It will be seen 

 from this what an important part unprofessional zeal may play in 

 sick chambers among the Malays. On the occasion I speak of, 

 numbers of friends and relations brought their own specifics, but 

 the state of the patient prevented their use. c? I must, however, 

 describe the dedication of a balei berpusing, or " revolving hall," 

 which was arranged and carried out at the instance of one of the 

 relations. 



* It is right that I should explain that every effort had been made to per- 

 suade the family to adopt civilised remedies, and to give up the proposed 

 resort to the pawangs. There was no English Doctor in Perak then, but the 

 officers at the Residency had a medicine -chest and one or two simple medical 

 works. The head of the family, however, declared that, if the pawangs were not 

 employed and the girl died, her other relations would charge him with not 

 having done all in his power to save her. English medicines would be thankf ully 

 received, but they would be administered in their turn with native remedies. 

 The sex of the patient rendered interference in nursing and feeding her impos- 

 sible. A large proportion of persons who die up-country in Perak are ushered 

 out of the world by the drum and chant of the pawang and bidti, w 



