6 MALAY POISONS AND CHABM CUBES 



rebel— the Orang Kaya Pahlawan of Pahang — was a 

 case in point. This wealthy Malay was endowed with 

 much cunning, great physical strength, courage, and a 

 power of imagination so developed that he could 

 persuade people to believe in the quaint infalhbility 

 of his ideas. Except for a silver bullet he was safe. 

 The idea of invulnerability of the flesh was also 

 attached to To' Janggnt, a ringleader in the Kelantan 

 rising of 1915, but he was shot dead by the Sikh troops 

 of the Malay States Guides. Charms intended to pro- 

 cure invulnerability nearly always take the form of a 

 belt. A girdle- charm of this kind was found on a 

 Kelantan robber who was speared to death, in ,1917,, 

 in a seaside village of Northern Kelantan ; this par- 

 ticular belt was tied with the knot in front* 



Certain Malay weapons are endowed with magic pro- 

 perties, especially the kris and some of the short Malay 

 daggers caEed tumboh lada. In 1917, his Highness the 

 late Sultan allowed a very beautiful and valuable 

 straight, long-bladed kiis to be taken from his palace 

 to the hut of an elderly woman living hear the Residency 

 in Kota Bharu. She had been bitten at dusk on the 

 foot by a poisonous snake, and expired at daybreak. 

 Several Malay " medicine-men " were in attendance ; 

 she died, however, before the arrival of a very famous 

 homor who had been sent for from afar and into whose 

 hands it was intended to place the Sultan's magical 

 kris. As a charm cure the point of the naked blade is 

 apphed by the homor to the punctures of snake bite. 

 No special formula is chanted. Death from snake bite 

 is rare in the Malay Peninsula, although more than 

 thirty poisonous varieties have been described ; the 

 royal kiis had been borrowed in the hope of restoring 

 the woman to health. 



His Highness the present Sultan showed me bia 



