10 MALAY POISONS AND CHARM CURES 



by smearing the ashes mixed with coco-nut oil over the 

 eyebrows. Poisonous drugs are not added to, or 

 employed in, the manufacture of Malay love philtres 

 for sinister purposes. Great attention is paid to the 

 proper combination of drugs for curative purposes, and 

 so also with poisonous preparations. Some of the 

 Malay poisons, especially those which act through the 

 skin and mucous membranes, are devised with an 

 almost incredible refinement of cruelty. 



" Time -Pol sons. "—It has often been said, but 

 without authority, that an accomphshed Malay criminal 

 can give a single dose of poison and time the death of 

 his victim witliin three months, six montlis, or even 

 three years, according to the dose and the particular 

 combination he uses. The possibihty of the existence 

 of such a poison which will kill at any distance of time 

 according to the dose is supported by the tale of 

 La Spara, who was hanged in Rome in 1648 with 

 thirteen of her companions, while a number of her 

 cHents were whipped, half naked, through the streets, 

 Hieronyma Spara, the reputed witch, supphed young 

 matrons who wished to resent the hifidelities of their 

 husbands vdih an elixir which was a slow poison, clear, 

 tasteless and hmpid, and of strength sufficient to 

 destroy hfe in the course of a day, week, month or 

 number of months, as the purchaser preferred. A 

 similar organisation was led by Tofania, an old woman 

 of Naples, who was tried and strangled in 1730, after 

 she had caused, directly or indii'ectly, the deaths of more 

 than 600 persons with her Aqua Tofa^na, or the Manna 

 of St. Niehola of Bari (Ref. 1). The same tradition 

 exists in Persia to this day. I tried to verify the Malay 

 story in an up-comiti-y district of Southern Kelantan 

 known as the Ulu Kesial district. This part of the 

 State had long enjoyed an evil reputation for efficiency 



