FASCICULI MALATENSES 
33 
to the person who wears it, and the knife is said to be kramat , In Patani a 
knife was sold to me by a Malay, who asserted that it was extremely lucky 
because the sheath was made out of a piece of cane on which there were natural 
markings somewhat resembling the word * Allah ’ in Arabic characters, but this 
possibly was c saint-sacred/ though I failed to ascertain precisely the light in 
which it was held. It was lent or hired out to persons starting on the Mecca 
pilgrimage, and was said to have invariably brought pilgrims who took it with 
them back in safety from Arabia. 
To return to the more usual sense of the word under discussion, the 
special clothes worn by medicine-men 1 and women during their ceremonies of 
incantation, the fiddles used in calling spirits, whether in dramatic performances 
or in magical ceremonies, the bowl which acts as a censer on similiar occasions, 
the magic rods used in divination and in expelling spirits, and all other 
‘apparatus’ (^perkakas) of the kind, are kramat , not because in themselves they 
impel or coerce the spirits, but because, when associated with the proper ritual 
music and words, they attract any wandering spirit which may be passing, as a 
female story-teller in Patani explained to me. But if a medicine-man 
(or woman) does not hand on his art to a pupil before dying, the actual 
apparatus which he used will become or generate a spirit {jadi hantu) 9 which 
will be very savage. Objects included in the magic paraphernalia are specially 
sanctified before they can be used, and are, as it were, introduced to the spirits* 
notice by a ceremony at which the bantu are induced to assemble by being 
offered representative morsels of a sheep or goat, upon the rest of which the 
medicine-man and his friends feast at the same time. 
In the foregoing pages I have attempted to describe, so far as my know¬ 
ledge and the space at my disposal permit me, the ideas that circle round the 
word kramat in the Patani States. It is evident, I think, that these ideas do 
not form a system, being rather a jumble of confused and sometimes 
incongruous superstitions, some of which have been influenced by Arabic thought 
while others recall the pagan times before Mahommedanism reached Malaya, 
suggesting that in those early days—not so very early in actual time—a mixture 
of animal-worship and hero-worship was widely spread, tinged on the one hand 
with pure idolatry and on the other with phallic rites, both possibly derived 
from intercourse with Hindu culture. Though the particular form which the 
reverence for the tombs of departed heroes assumes in this district may be 
i. Story-telling is regarded as a branch of magic in the Patani States, because the person who tell* the story, 
if it be one of tire recognized tales told in the fashion known at Main Putri t or Princess Play, must first be inspired 
by becoming possessed by a spirit. The story-teller* in Patani town are mostly women, and, seeing that the pro¬ 
fession is one that taxes the constitution, owing to the couvulsioni and acrobatic feats inseparably connected with 
possession, they are rarely past the prime of life. When they get too old to practice themselves, they make a certain 
amount of money by hiring out their magical apparatus to younger women. Fifty cent* an evening is the usual fee 
paid by the borrower, but a very famous performer may charge more. 
F 
nhM 
