42 
FASCICULI MALArENSES 
he just knew. He had given them three female names, each Earth Spirit 
sharing one with a Great Spirit, and explained that the first pair on the list, 
which has the commonest and most homely name, was his favourite ; the 
names were—Meh ’Teh (the female equivalent of his own), Sri Bunga 
(Madame Flower), and Siti Manang. When he made them an offering, he 
called out, ( Ho, Sri Bunga, Siti Manang, Meh ’Teh ! Come here 1 Eat 
my offering 1 Take you care that my body is not affected, that the flow of my 
blood is not stayed 1 Likewise with the bodies of my wife and children. 
(If not), I’ll turn the earth and the sky the wrong way round ! ’ This 
formula is far more typical of those used by Patani medicine-men than the 
prayer quoted above, ending as it does in a ridiculous threat which any being but 
a spirit would see to be ridiculous. Nevertheless, ’Che ’Teh laughed my proposal 
to scorn, that he should offer his tame spirits stones like eggs instead of real 
eggs ; he said that they would know at once, would be very angry, and would 
Cause him to become ill. ’Che ’Teh was a very low and ignorant Malay, even 
for the Patani States, and had a considerable amount of animal cunning ; he 
was a highway robber, who spent the greater part of his time in prison and 
had done so for many years, but 1 am convinced that he thoroughly believed 
in his tame spirits. He would not mention their names by night, though he 
made no scruple in telling me them by day. They appeared to be very little use 
to him, for they were not sufficiently strong to do much injury to his enemies ; 
but he was certain that their possession brought him much good fortune. 
Apparently he practiced divination by their aid, watching the manner in which 
they consumed the eggs, and the exact way in which they appeared. 
The other kind of familiar recognized in the Patani States is a very much 
more formidable being, which has to be actually made by i ts f mother ’ or f father’; 
when kept by a woman it is called pelesit (or, more rarely, poking)' when kept by a 
man, putah rengas, The great moral temptation which assails those who study 
magic is believed to be the temptation to make one of these spirits, but the 
ceremony is so horrible that comparatively few have the courage to undertake 
it; its exact nature is a secret which I could not discover, but very possibly 
it resembles one with a similar object described by Skeat, in which the 
exhumation of a corpse plays a prominent part. Women more frequently keep 
pe/esit than men do putah rengas, and I have not personally come across a case 
of a male witch of the kind. While we were travelling between Kampong 
Jalor and Mabek, however, we spent a night at a Malay village called Petai, 
where we slept in a praying-room belonging to the headman, who was a very 
i. Skeat makes a distinction between the pile sit and the potonr (Malay Marie, p, t2o) : but I doubt how far 
it ia valid in the Patani State.. * * r W 
