BLACK AET IN MALAY MEDICINE 67 



is only one performer^ the hojnor mok pek himself, who 

 operates with a small bundle of canes, using them as 

 divining-rods. The bundle I have handled was made 

 up of seven pieces of rattan, each about two feet long, 

 evidently selected and pohshed with care, and tied 

 together at one end. The honioT mok pek first smears 

 coco-nut oil on his hands and on hiss canes ; then he 

 holds them over burning incense and utters an incanta- 

 tion over them. After a while his hand begins to shake 

 violently and the canes to rattle ; and if he has been 

 engaged in order to fiaid lost property or hidden objects 

 pertaining to witchcraft, the rods are supposed to lead 

 him to the place where the articles in question can be 

 found. When he reaches his goal his hand points to 

 the place and the rods cease to rattle* During the 

 performance of mam mok pek the homor behaves as if 

 he were no longer master of himself, and appears for the 

 time being to be possessed of supernatural powers. 

 He is generally looked after by his friends and restrained, 

 for instance, from getting down a well ; but if he makes 

 for the river he is left to his own devices. If he is 

 engaged in the cure of a sick man he approaches his 

 patient with the oscillating rods and makes a careful 

 survey of the man*s body ; when they cease to rattle 

 he strikes gently with them on some part of the patient's 

 body as a sign that he has located the place in which the 

 evil spirit of the disease is hiding. In Kelantan villages 

 a bundle of sprouting stems from young areca pakns is 

 sometimes substituted for the rattan canes. The 

 Kelantan practice is somewhat different from that 

 employed in Perak and described by Swettenham in 

 " Malay Sketches " : Yet another plan is to place in 

 the hands of a pawang, magician, or medium, a divining- 

 rod formed of three lengths of rattan, tied together at 

 one end, and when he gets close to the person * wanted,* 



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