METHODS OF POISONING AND CHABMS 3 



except h^ta, pokok hatu p^r kambing, langkup, ihtd, 

 pokok ipoh, rHgdSy hinjai, rengut and titha, are used as 

 Malay medicines. 



Malay thieves frequently use poisonous plants to 

 cause no more than stupefaction (mahok) of their victims 

 as a preliminary to the main venture. Robbers employ 

 sand, powdered glass, quicklime and other powders to 

 disconcert their pursuers. Rogues claim to be able to 

 cause loss of voice lasting for seven or eight days by 

 the administration of certain poisons by the mouth. 

 Two or three clinical cases have occurred in Kelantan 

 in which it was alleged that witnesses in court could 

 not give evidence for this reason. Aphonia was com- 

 plete but temporaiy, but the poison could not be pro- 

 duced. To' Bomor Awang, a Kota Bharu " mediciae- 

 man," or homor, said that a powder made vnih lime 

 used in betel-chewing, and scrapmgs from the smooth, 

 dry, shiny inner bark of a forest vine {rotun sega ; 

 Calamus, sp. PalmaB), the famiUar " cane " of boyhood, 

 was used for this purpose. Tliis was prepared by the 

 " medicine-man " (To' Bomor Awang), and given by 

 arrangement, in a draught of w^ater, to a strong Chinese 

 ward attendant in the State hospital at Kota Bharu, 

 Kelantan, but it had no iU effect on him. The amount 

 of powdered rattan bark was probably too small in 

 • quantity, owing to nervousness on the part of the 

 hotmr who prepared it. He was a vaccinator on the 

 hospital staff, 



Buicide by poisoning, or indeed by any other method, 

 is almost uoinown among Malays, except, perhaps, 

 when the wild beast part of a distracted man comes 

 uppermost and brooding suUenness changes to frantic 

 frenzy. A Malay may then staii; to " rim amuck " 

 with a stabbing or cutting weapon in his hand, perhaps 

 with the idea of suicide, killing indiscriminately, and 



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