Mantra Gajah. 



By tWSQ^mRQ^ Maxwell. 



In an article, which I contributed to the Society's Journal 

 No. 45, and in which I gave a translation of a book of charms 

 used by Malay elephant-drivers, I mentioned that I had in my 

 possession another book of similar charms. 



It consists of six sheets of stout paper, sewn down the 

 middle so as to make a small book of twelve sheets or twenty- 

 four pages. The outer cover has been stained a rich chocolate 

 colour by the moisture of warm and perhaps not over clean 

 hands and by the smoke of the fire--places over which the 

 Malays keep, in hanging racks, the articles which they wish to 

 preserve from damp. There is nothing in the book or on its 

 cover to give any idea of its age, and Mat Jawi, the Assistant 

 Penghulu of Kuala Plus, who gave it to me, could only say, in 

 general terms, that it was old, and that it had been in his 

 family for a long time. Mat Jawi is the grandson of the for- 

 mer Orang Kaya kaya Sri Adika Eaja, and, as the book of which 

 I have already given a translation is expressly stated to 

 contain the hereditary lore " that has come down from the 

 Datohs Sri Adika Eaja unto the present day," it is only to be 

 expected that the charms set forth in the two books should 

 closely resemble one another. This book begins abruptly 

 without an introduction of any kind, and ends even more 

 abruptly by reason of the available space on the paper being 

 exhausted. In the last line, the writer started to give a charm 

 to soften the heart of an elephant, and then, seeing that he had 

 no more paper, scratched it out, and scribbled under it 

 " tamat " " the end." 



I here reproduce the book in its entirety in " roman " 

 characters. I have not attempted to edit it in any way, of 

 such part of it as is Malay no translation is necessary, and of 

 such part of it as is not Malay I am unable to give a transla- 

 tion. I am inclined to think that the non-Malay charms are 

 nothing but a corrupt form of Siamese, and to ascribe to 



Jour. Straits Branch R. A. Soc, No. 49. 1907. 



