USE OF THE SLOW LOUIS IN MALAY MEDICINE. 31 



On the Use of the Slow Loris in Malay 

 Medicine. 



By H. N. Ridley. 



The following instructions for the medical and magic uses 

 of the Loris, were copied some time ago from a manuscript in 

 Malay, and are excellent illustrations of Malay ideas as to 

 medicine. In many respects these receipts recall European 

 medical ideas of some four centuries ago. The notion that one 

 drug will act beneficially in all diseases that flesh is heir to is 

 by no means extinct among the more ignorant classes at the 

 present day, while the use of animals, especially if of strange 

 and uncanny appearance, simply because they were odd looking, 

 was formerly quite common in Europe. Thus the viper, and the 

 seine (Mabuia) were valued highly as late as 16 ( J4. (Fomet's 

 Drugs). Still earlier toads, bats and other such animals were 

 used in magic as the Loris is among the Malays and Indians to 

 this day. 



The Kongkang, or Slow Loris (Nyctivebus tardigradus) is 

 common all over the peninsula and also occurs in India. Its 

 strange appearance with its large eyes and ape-like hands, its 

 nocturnal habits and its manner of covering its eyes with its 

 hands, have stamped it in the eyes of all Orientals as an uncanny 

 beast closely associated with demons, which it is supposed to 

 have special facilities for seeing. I have been informed that its 

 tears if applied to the eyes impart such clearness of vision that 

 the person using it is able to see ghosts. The method of ob- 

 taining the tears is to take the animal among a herd of cows 

 when it commences to weep, but another plan which indeed 

 sounds more likely to succeed was to wrap the animal's body 

 in a white cloth, and throw pepper in its eyes. The tears are 

 collected on a bit of cotton. 



Five varieties of the Loris are recognised by the Malays, 

 viz., the Kongkang ayer, the common grey forn, so called 



