SHORT NOTES. 209 
at the time, this would only seem natural when it is remembered 
that an epidemic of measles was then and had been for some 
time after raging. 
A. D. Machado. 
Malay Witchcraft. | 
Towards the end of 1901 while I was in charge of a coun- 
try district in Alor Gajah, complaints were made to me of a 
certain Pawang Musah who was said to bewitch children by 
means ofa familiar spirit called a Polong. One man stated 
that one of his children had died from the effects and that an- 
other was affected. As his house was only abouta mile from where 
I lived, I and the colonial surgeon from Malacca, who happened 
to be with me on one of his periodical visits decided to go and 
see the child. When we arrived at the house we found a large 
number of people in the house and lying at one end of the 
verandah, the child (a little girl of 7 or 8 years old) in a semi- 
unconscious state. The doctor examined it and found that it was 
in a high fever and evidently dying. While we were there the 
father sat down and spoke to the child. She opened her eyes 
and when asked by the father ‘‘ who sent you here and who is 
your father” or words to that effect, she replied ‘“‘ Pawang Mu- 
sah.” This was taken by the bystanders to be the voice of the 
Polong speaking through the child. We were also told that the 
child had been asked who would be the next victim and had 
pointed out her older sister a girl of 18 or 19 yearsold. This 
girl was examined by the doctor and found to have nothing the 
matter with her. We assured her she had nothing to fear, 
and as far as I know she is still alive, at any rate she was alive 
in February 1902 when I left Malacca. The dying child was 
suffering from malarial fever, enlarged spleen and starvation 
and though we sent up stimulants they were of no avail and 
she died a very few hours after we left. Pawang Musah lived 
about 2 miles from were the child lived and had a bad reputa- 
tion asa wizard. He originally came from the other side of 
Malacca about 30 miles away and had moved about from village 
to village everywhere getting the credit for the deaths of child- 
R. A. Soc., No. 39, 1903. 
