20 MALAY POISONS AND CHARM CURES 



treatment of simple fractures by means of circular 

 splints made of slips of split bamboo fastened together 

 (helat, a kind of Gooch splint) and applied outside a 

 vegetable poultice. He is not always so successful in 

 bis minor sm-gery, wliich, according to the Muhammadan 

 religion, is mostly confined to the operations of cir- 

 cumcisionj ear-boring and tooth-filing. I have seen a 

 clinical accident in which a Kelantan homor completely 

 severed the male organ at the root during the circum- 

 cision of a yomig lad ; but most of the failm-es which 

 drift into the Government hospitals are due to sepsis. 

 Midwifeiy, and all the lore pertaining to it, is the 

 province of a woman, the bidan or Malay midwife ; the 

 homor is called in only when the help of magic seems to 

 be indicated in a difficult labour caused by hantu or 

 evil spirits. Charms known as iawar seluwk are used 

 in cases of transverse and other abnormal presentations, 

 Hantu.— It is necessary to dwell on the w^ord 

 hatdu (ghosts, evil spirits and gohhns) in order to explain 

 the work of the homor in relation to cHnical medicine. 

 Just as the hawthorn is under the protection of the 

 fairies in Ireland, its small red fruit the pixies' pear of 

 Dorset, and darnel is sown by the devil in Wiltshh*e at 

 midnight, so in Malaya there are wild plants which 

 are said to be planted and cultivated by haniu or sphits. 

 Pokok kapas hantu (Hibiscus abelmoschus, Linn., 

 Malvaceae), a shrub used in medicine, having musky 

 perfumed seeds, and akar kemennyan hantu, a chmbing 

 plant (Hedyotis capitellata, Wall., Rubiaceae), also 

 called akar lidak jin, or Satan's tongue, are examples. 

 Also may be noted the river weed called akar kiniang 

 hantu (Neptunia oleracea, Lorn*., Leguminosae), the 

 root of which is used in Kelantan as an external remedy 

 for necrosis of the bones of the nose and hard palate 

 {resto-ii'gjf one of the late manifestations of syphihs. In 



