46 PAPERS ON MALAY SUBJECTS. 
believe in Yei the Malay Kel^mhm, the Tvizard who 
turned every thirig into stone and was driven out of th^ 
country in terror through bis mistaking a toothless 
old man for the baby of some new gigantic race. l^'j''s 
house is shown on Mount Ireni and Gunong Banghih 
contains the tomb of his son. 
The Sakai's one protector against these evil spirits is 
the communal wizard, the na-lmlau or wai^halau as he is 
called. This gentleman is not a pawang in the Malay 
sense. The paivang is somethmg o{ an impostor: he 
is a specialist in some pursuit to which the black 
art is only subsidiary. He is known to the Sakai 
as pawdl'. The ha-ha lau is a wizard pore and simple. 
He is a soothsayer and witch-doctor ; he holds seances to 
predict the future, and can locate and extract from a 
patient's body the dart of the Nyani Liidan, A man 
like this is, of coui'se, a great help to a superstitious 
people. He holds his seances by night only, squatting 
in a little bee-hive but with his followers all gathered 
around it. He purifies himself by unwonted ablutions 
in cold water, burns incense, utters prayers and ends by 
being possessed " by a familiar spirit ^ who descends 
and occupies his body. The ravings of the na^halau are 
the voice of the spirit : the audience takes note of what 
it can interpret. A woman may be a ntj^kaiau but 
rarely takes to the career. 
The 7ia'halan is associated in an extraordinary way 
with the Peninsular form of ly can thro phy, the were- 
tigers of Malaya. He is not buried when he dies but is 
exposed in a small iiut or tree-grave along with certain 
simples and incense. On a certain night — the seventh 
according to Cerruti— the wizard's gnnik (or familiar) 
