2 MANTRA GAJAH. 



been mixed, or fused, for in'soine of the mantras which would 

 appear to be non-Malay a great proportion of the words 

 have Malay meanings. Of this, section nineteen contains an 

 example. But this, as will be suggested below, is most 

 probably only the result of the corruption of the sound of 

 non-Malay words in the mouth of a Malay. In order to em- 

 phasize the difference between the non-Malay and the Malay 

 words, the former are printed in capitals, and the latter in 

 italics. [ In the manuscript, which is in the Malay character, 

 the writer has made use of the Arabic vowel marks in writing 

 the non- Malay words. ] Where there are any signs of 

 corruption I have, wherever I have considered it useful, given 

 the meaning of the Malay words. Each of the purely Malay 

 mantras is followed by a translation. 



A perusal of this collection of mantras shows that not 

 only is there a mixture of languages but that there is an extra- 

 ordinary jumble of religions. Rama appears both in the Ma- 

 lay and the non-Malay mantras and is generally placed in 

 antithesis to the Great Sages either of Hinduism or of 

 Buddhism. The purely Malay mantras, which are only three 

 in number, and confined to sections 4 and 5, are of general 

 import only, with no particular reference to elephants. Of 

 these mantras the second begins with Bi'smi-'llahi'r-rahma- 

 ni'r-rahimi and the third ends with la-ilaha illa-llahMuhammad 

 rasul Allah. 



The Azazil, who is described in the first Malay mantra as 

 a " headman of the forests," is perhaps the Azazel of the 

 sixteenth chapter of Leviticus, who is supposed to have been 

 either a pre-Mosaic Devil or else a spirit of the deserts and 

 wildernesses. * 



*" The scapegoat " is the translation of the Revised Version of 

 the Bible, but a marginal note states that the Hebrew word is Azazel. 

 Substituting the word Azazel for the word scapegoat the passage is as 

 follows. 



" Ami Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the 

 " Lord and the other for Azazel. And Aaron shall bring the goat 

 " upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. But 

 " the goat upon which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive 



Jour. Straits Branch 



