BLACK ART IN MALAY MEDICINE 87 



cakes, the blood of a fowl, and some parched rice. 

 Each of these is put into a separate httle container made 

 of banana leaf {Umilong) and placed m the proper order 

 from the basement to the top story. One silver dollar 

 is placed on each floor, making a total of five dollars. 

 This money is intended for the feieri. 



The same collection of things, in miniature, is placed 

 on a square mat made out of coco-nut palm leaves, and 

 called as well as one silver dollar ; a similar collec- 

 tion with another silver dollar is also put into a kind of 

 basket shaped like a cradle, also made of coco-nut palm 

 leaves, and called the "princess hall" {balai Eaja). 

 One beeswax candle is put at each of these places. 

 Three plates are placed on the ground, one containing 

 some yellow rice, another holding three small skeins of 

 white thread, and the third containing twelve and a half 

 cents {pitis sa-kupang). This is the pekras guru, or 

 honorarium to the To' Bomor Peteri. Four jars full of 

 water are also placed on the ground, tliree of them 

 containing the coloured leaves of crotons and dracsenas 

 which are commonly seen as ornamental shrubs in 

 European gardens {puding 7nas and puding perak, 

 Codiaeum variegatum, and andong or jejuang^ CordyUne 

 terminahs), while the fourth water jar is a copper pitcher 

 with a round bottom and a smallish chcular neck. The 

 neck of the pitcher is covered with three pieces of white 

 cloth by means of white thread, q^nd it is inverted so that 

 it may contain ayer sotigsang^ or topsy-tm^vy " water. 

 Twelve and a half cents are placed on each of the four 

 water jars. A bamboo with the free end spht so as to 

 form a kind of basket is stuck into the ground and a 

 young green coco-nut with a silver dollar on the top of it 

 is placed hi the receptacle ; underneath the green coco- 

 nut, and about the middle of the bamboo stem, a small 

 platform made of bamboo is arranged and decorated 



