104 MALAY POISONS AND CHARM CUBES 



he returns what luck he has bad, you can find out not 

 only what he has caught, but in what part of the fish's 

 mouth the hook took hold. You can find out also 

 whether he is asleep or awake, and what part of the 

 house he is in. It is possible to find out also how long 

 it would be before the owner will awake or somebody 

 will pass by. Another instance of this kind of divina- 

 tion given in the book shows whether your neighbour's 

 wife is to bear a boy or a girl. A certain answer means 

 that the baby will be a girl, but endowed with con- 

 spicuously mascuhne qualities ; the terse phraseology 

 of the manuscript is : jika orang heranak ka-pada 

 Ahuhdkar, anaJc-nya per^mpuan tetapi nasih-nya laki- 

 laki juga (** if a woman bears a child to Abubakar, it is 

 a girl, but for all that with the luck of a boy "). Such 

 an amazon daughter was evidently at one time greatly 

 desired. Acquaintance with these charms seems to be 

 confined nowadays to a very few. Some Kelantan 

 Muhammadans look upon the knowledge of them as 

 good or bad, according to the use to which they are put, 

 and say that if the charms were used for bad ends the 

 celestial powers would change their modes of egress and , 

 so lead an evil-doer astray. The strictly orthodox 

 condemn them all. 



Much that is written in this old Kelantan book is 

 tmfit for reproduction owing to its grossness, especially 

 where the teacher is deahng with protective pro- 

 cedm'es and those relative to the maintenance of 

 chastity. Two formulas are given for " shielding 

 a woman's chastity " ; especially in the second, the 

 reader will think of the modem treatment by sug- 

 gestion." 



(1) Becite these words : man ya rasu sa ; lam ya • 

 rasu sa ; hia rasu sa ; vmn ya rasu sa ; lam ya ram sa, 

 thirty times ; then breathe over her from head to foot 



