6 FOLK-LORE AND POPULAR RELIGION OF THE MALAYS. 



be regarded as the legitimate representative of the primitive 

 '' medicine-man " or " village sorcerer " and his very existence 

 in these days is an anomaly, though it does not strike Malays 

 as such. 



Very often the office is hereditary, or at least the appoint- 

 ment is practically confined to the members of one family. 

 Sometimes it is endowed with certain ''properties" handed 

 down from one Pawang to his successor, known as the kabesd- 

 ran, or, as it were, regalia. On one occasion I was nearly 

 called upon to decide whether these adjuncts — which consisted, 

 in this particular case, of a peculiar kind of head-dress — were 

 the personal property of the person then in possession of them 

 (who had got them from his father, a deceased Pawang) or 

 were to be regarded as official insignia descending with the 

 office in the event of the natural heir declining to serve ! 

 Fortunately I was spared the difficult task of deciding this 

 delicate point of law, as I managed to persuade the owner 

 to take up the appointment. 



But quite apart from such external marks of dignity, the 

 Pawang is a person of very real significance. In all agri- 

 cultural operations, such as sowing, reaping, irrigation works, 

 and the clearing of jungle for planting, in fishing at sea, in 

 prospectmg for minerals, and in cases of sickness, his assist- 

 ance is invoked. He is entitled by custom to certain small 

 fees : thus, after a good harvest, he is allowed, in some villages, 

 five gantangs of padi, one gantang of rice {beras) and two 

 chupaks of emping ( a preparation of rice and coco-nut made 

 into a sort of sweetmeat ) from each householder. After re- 

 covery from sickness, his remuneration is the very modest 

 amount of tiga wang baharuy that is, yi cents. 



It is generally believed that a good harvest can only be se- 

 cured by complying with his instructions, which are of a 

 peculiar and comprehensive character. 



They consist largely of prohibitions, which are known as 

 pantang. Thus, for instance, it is pantang in some places to 

 work in the rice-field on the 14th and 15th days of the lunar 

 month ; and this rule of enforced idleness being very congenial 

 to the Malay character is, I believe, pretty strictly observed. 



