8 MANTRA GAJAH. 



and 10. Si Kambing Hutan means in Malay "the goat-antelope 

 of the forest " (the serow, naemorhaedus sumatranus). Kumhang 

 is the generic Malay term for a beetle, and no particular species 

 is known, so far as I am aware, as Si Kumhang Hutan, the forest 

 beetle. And neither goat -antelope nor beetle can have any 

 possible connexion with either mantra. 



A Siamese to whom I read over the mantras recognized 

 the Siamese sounds and words in them, but every now and 

 then a mantra or part of it would puzzle him and after trying 

 various sounds and tones he would say that that is was not 

 Siamese. 



If this is really the case, the question is whether the words 

 are merely so corrupt as to be unintelligible, or whether they are 

 in another language. 



The text shows that the principal object of the mantras 

 is to avert misfortune : they are defensive rather than aggres- 

 sive. The terms used to denote the various kinds and degrees 

 of misfortune require a word or two of comment. The general 

 term is pilak, which, though it is not to be found in Malay 

 dictionaries, is a fairly common, and, I believe, a purely Malay 

 word. 



Bahdi, genaling and jinggi are practically synonymous 

 terms for evil influences which the Malays believe to be brought 

 into play by the death or capture of a wild animal. (An account 

 of the Malay ideas on this subject, with a collection of mantras 

 and a description of the driving out of the bahdi will be found 

 in an article by the present writer in Blackwood's Magazine 

 for October 1903). For bahdi a Sanskrit origin from vadha, 

 killing, has been claimed.* 



Genaling, though now a Malay word in ordinary use, ap- 

 pears, with an antithetical form gunaling in the non-Malay 

 mantras, and has perhaps a non-Malay origin. If its origin is 

 Siamese, it must have become somewhat corrupted as there is 

 no " g " in Siamese. 



fiengab, a word which appears frequently in the mantras 

 and in the text, where the compound from pe-rengab is more 



Maxwell. Manual of the Malay language p. 34. 



Jour. Straits Branch 



