8 MALAY PaiSONS AND CHARM CUBES 



and darts poisoned by means of the deadly upas sap 

 are now no longer used for homicide, being confined to 

 the killing of game by the aborigines living in caves, 

 hills and plains, i.e., by the Sakai and other jungle 

 folk of the Malay Peninsula. 



Bile. — The bUe of reptiles, birds and mammals is a 

 favomite ingredient of many Malay poisons. Probably 

 its use by Malays as a practical poison is not very 

 efficacious, and it may be used only in " make-believe,'* 

 as an excipient, or to give a firdsb to a known deadly 

 combination. Bile is much prized as a medicine ; for 

 instance, that of the bear, porcupine, snake and crow, 

 especially that of the racquet-tailed drongo or king- 

 crow (Dissemurus platurus), is used by the hormr either 

 as a practical or fanciful drug. The dried gall-bladder 

 of the bear is used as a medicine in Borneo ; but the 

 Malay homor only ad mi nisters the bile of the honey- 

 bear (Helarctos malayanus) internally as a ** pick-me- 

 up " in cases of accidental falls from a tree or heiglit ; 

 it is more commonly applied by him to the navel of 

 children suffering from emaciation caused by intestinal 

 worms. The bile of the large porcupine (Hystrix 

 longicauda) is used in cases of suppressed yaws {hunga 

 furu ta* jodi) ; that of the king-crow or monkey*s slave 

 is used as a fanciful and very disgusting kind of 

 aphrodisiac. 



Blood. — Human blood is sometimes used in the 

 making of love charms and gambling charms. The 

 blood must be derived from the corpse of a man who 

 has suffered death fi'om violence, and, for the future 

 success of the charm, it is essential to obtain his for- 

 giveness before his death. This superstition is quite 

 common in Kelantan ; Nik Ismail, one of the Kelantan 

 Malays on the hospital staff at Kota Bharu, told me 

 that when cases of murder are in the wards, charm- 



