22 MALAY POISONS' AND CHARM CUBES 



Hanuman^ who occurs in the Hindu legend Ramayan. 

 It is described as having the face of a horse and the 

 body of a man. The word haniu is applied to the middle 

 finger {jari Imnki), perhaps supporting the old supersti- 

 tion of " making the horns " against the Evil Eye; a 

 sea-shell called si'pui laut, unidentified, is called haniu, 

 and the word si'pui, if used io another sense, signifies 

 the lines or markings on the hands used in palmistry 

 (Eef. 15). 



The very superstitious Malay takes it for granted 

 that a certain class of these evil spirits, the haniu 

 jpenyakitf cause him illness. 'For example, among others 

 ^ are the haniu Mnibmig, that afflicts liim with stomach- 

 ache and distension of the abdomen ; the hantu 

 kituTribohan, that brings on small-pox ; the hantu 

 chikUf that causes severe colic at night-time ; the hantu 

 mamhang of jaundice ; the haniu huia and ka7itu pekak 

 of blindness and deafness. The hantu uri, an evil 

 spirit of the after- birth connected with the caul^ is held ' 

 responsible for the gurgle (agah) of an infant during 

 sleep. The Malay oven thinks that evil spnits can 

 control both the occm-rence and the march of disease. 

 To* Bomor Enche* Harun, one of the " medicine-men " 

 to the Kelantan royal household, gave me the follow- 

 ing scrap of information. He took it from one of liis 

 old hand-copied magico-medical books, and said it was 

 genuine knowledge in magic ; " A Hadji on his return 

 voyage from Mecca passed an island, where he caught 

 sight of many hayitu sitting on the ground. He landed 

 and at fii-st walked about keeping his own counsel. 

 At last he met the king of the island, and addressed him 

 not knowing at the time that it was the king. He 

 asked the name of the place. The king of the phantoms 

 said ' It is the island of Kiran ; you are addressing the 

 king, who is Baja Sinar Pati ; my men are called hantu 



