96 MALAY POISONS AND CHABM CUBES 



('* Ingoldsby Legends ") in his witchcraft, but some 

 Malay " medicine-men " who are accomphshed in the 

 Black Art of sphit-raising claim to be able to catch the 

 souls of the women they love m the folds of their turbans, 

 and then go about ^\lth the souls of the beloved in their 

 girdles by day and liide them under their pillows by 

 night, and can teach others how to abduct souls for evil 

 purposes (Ref, 7). The idea of neutrahsing the spell of 

 a " black witch " by piercing the dried heart of an 

 animal, such as a sheep or cow, with needles and pins, 

 as described by Mr, Edward Lovett in the Mornhig Post 

 of August 23rd, 1918 A Modem White Witch of 

 Exmoor"), would not appeal to Malays. The spirit- 

 raising homor is prepared to go far in black witch- 

 craft. 



Skeat records how the hoTttor makes a waxen image 

 the length of a footstep to represent a corpse. Then if 

 blmdness is desired the eye is pierced, piercing the 

 waist makes the stomach bad, death is caused when the 

 head is transfixed with a palm twig, then the image is 

 enshi-ouded and prayed over as if it were really a corpse ; 

 burial follows in the middle of the path wliich leads to 

 the dwelhng of whomsoever is to be be-devilled when he 

 steps over it. Sometimes the boTnor or pawan^ repeats 

 a formula protesting that it is not he but the Archangel 

 Gabriel that is arranging the bmial of the victim. At 

 other times he says It is not wax I slay, but the Hver, 

 heart, spleen of So-and-so," before he finally buries the 

 image in front of the victim's door (Ref. 3), The 

 Kelantan homor of to-day generally, I thii^k, leaves such 

 proceedings to his Siamese colleagues. Examples have 

 occurred, however, in Perak in wliich waxen images of 

 white men in high places have been designed and 

 pierced with pins by Malay sorcerers within recent years, 

 but without any dire results. 



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