FASCICULI MALATENSES 
4i 
heard at Jambu, where such practices are very common, of a woman who had 
had a familiar. It sat on the top step of her house-ladder, and she had 
promised to feed it every Friday with her own blood. One Friday she forgot 
to do so, and as she put her foot on the ladder she fell down dead, I cannot 
say, exactly, what kind of spirit it was that she neglected to feed, for the 
Malays of the Patani States generally recognize two kinds of familiars, the 
acquisition of one of which is easy and not particularly wicked, while it is, 
practically, a criminal offence to keep the other. The more venial familiar is 
simply called a ‘tame spirit’ (bantujind) ; its services are obtained by calling 
together the spirits to the sacrifice of a white buffalo, and by promising certain 
offerings, either periodically or on the occasion of any special undertaking, to 
a definite number of individuals. Six is the usual number contracted for, for it 
is difficult to feed seven. In Jalor it is customary to regard these six spirits 
as consisting of three pairs, each of which includes an Earth Spirit and a Great 
Spirit. At Jambu offerings are sometimes made to spirits of the kind in such 
a way that both the Earth Spirits and the Great Spirits may enjoy them con¬ 
veniently, A bamboo pole, the top of which is formed into a kind of funnel-shaped 
basket, is stuck into the ground in an upright position, generally in some 
waste place ; a platform is formed round it, some way below the terminal 
funnel, by weaving split cane or bamboo between pieces of the latter material, 
which are stuck into the pole in a circle ; the offerings for the Earth Spirits 
are placed upon this platform, while those for the Great Spirits are laid above 
in the funnel. Round Patani town such offerings are usually made in the 
cemetery or its vicinity and I have not seen any of the poles with the lower 
platform, the whole sacrifice consisting of a cocoanut, carefully freed of its 
outer husk, opened and placed in the funnel, and of a wax taper fixed to 
the side of the bamboo. At Biserat the Siamese commissioner was kind 
enough to put at cur disposal, as hewer of wood and drawer of water, 
a convict there in prison, a native of Jalor, whose family had produced 
many living shrines—an eminence which the convict himself, whose name 
was ’Che 'Teh, hoped in time to attain* He was not a professional medicine¬ 
man, but claimed to keep three pairs of tame spirits, concerning which he gave 
me the following particulars, offering at the same time to teach me how to obtain 
spiritual slaves myself, if I would sacrifice a white buffalo and study the 
‘science’ under him for six weeks :—He said that he had promised to feed his 
familiars once a week on eggs, and after he had done so for a month, during 
which they only consumed the smell or savour of his offering, they com¬ 
menced to appear to him in the form of ants, and to devour the eggs bodily ; 
but he could not tell me how he distinguished them from ordinary ants— 
G 
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