FOLK-LORE AND POPULAR RELIGION OF THE MALAYS. 3 



and get enough water for irrigating their fields. There was 

 another kramat of his lower down the hill, also consisting of 

 rocks, one of which was shaped something like a boat. I 

 was informed that \\i\s jin is attended by tigers which guard 

 the hill and are very jealous of the intrusion of other ticrers 

 from the surrounding country. He is believed to have revealed 

 himself to the original Pawang of the village, the mythical 

 founder of the kampong of Nyalas. In a case like this it 

 seems probable that the name attached to this object of 

 reverence is a later accretion and that under a thin disguise 

 we have here a relic of the worship of the spirit of rivers and 

 streams, a sort of elemental deity, localized in this particular 

 place and still regarded as a proper object of worship and 

 propitiation, in spite of the theoretically strict monotheism 

 of the Muhammadan creed. Again, at another place, the 

 kramat is nothing but a tree, of somewhat singular shape, 

 having a large swelling some way up the trunk. It was 

 explained to me that this tree was connected in a special way 

 with the prospects of local agriculture, the size of the swelling 

 increasing in good years and diminishing in bad seasons ! 

 Hence it was naturally regarded with considerable awe by 

 the purely agricultural population of the neighbourhood. 



As may be imagined, it is exceedingly difficult to discover 

 any authentic facts regarding the history of these numerous 

 kramats : even where there is some evidence of the existence 

 of a grave, the name of the departed saint is usually the one 

 fact that is remembered, and often even that is forgotten. 

 The most celebrated of the Malacca kramats, the one at 

 Machap, is a representative type of the first class, that in 

 which there really is a grave : it is the one place where a 

 hardened liar respects the sanctity of an oath, and it is occa- 

 sionally visited in connection with civil cases, when the one 

 party challenges the other to take a particular oath : a man 

 who thinks nothing of perjuring himself in the witness box and 

 who might not much mind telling a lie even with the Koran 

 on his head, will flinch before the ordeal of a falsehood in the 

 presence of the " Dato' Machap." The worship there, as with 

 most other kramats, consists of the burning of incense, the 



