CHARMS AND AMULETS 



55 



up also in the belt and was declared by the poHce to 

 have come from the neck of a wild boar. Superstitions 

 about the wild pig recorded by Skeat in Malay 

 Magic " are fully beUeved in by Kelantan folk ; they 

 do not seem to recognise the fable of the " wild boar's 

 chain " with its links of magic iron, but pin then* faith 

 on a kind of hair necklace (chemara habi), which they 

 say the boar is very particular about keeping clean, 

 A lucky man may find it near a jmigle pig*s wallow 

 when the beast takes it off preparatory to rolling in the 

 mire. In Kelantan the cliemara habi charm consists of a 

 collection of stiff> dark fibres, each about a foot in 

 length, apparently obtained from a palm tree, such as 

 the palmyra, or perhaps the coco-nut. It is thought 

 by many to be a very valuable protective charm against 

 the charge of a wild boar. Others say it is very useful 

 to burglars because it keeps people in a sound sleep 

 (sSkot). The ch&mra babi charm is said to protect the 

 skin of the wearer from hurt or harm from any kind of 

 weapon. Some say it comes off the hairy leg of the 

 evil spirit known as Jianiu raya. The high priest of 

 the Siamese community in Kelantan told me that the 

 numerals and letters on the white cloth wrapper of the 

 belt had been taken haphazard from the sacred books 

 of Siam, and that the diagrams represented Buddha as 

 a central figure, surrounded by crude drawings of a 

 child in different stages of uterine development and at 

 term- He drew particular attention to the wild boar's 

 tusk, which he stated to be sohd throughout, and said 

 that another like it could not be found among a thousand 

 wild pigs (Ref. 5). 



A turquoise finger ring is said to be of value in 

 warding off' poisonous snakes in Kelantan, much in the 

 same way as a necklace of blue beads is said to ward off 

 bronchitis in England. The chmckin wafak, a gold ring 



