FASCICULI MALATENSES 
52 
principle at present. The third form with which I am acquainted consists of 
a living toad' tied up in a half cocoanut-shell ; it is believed to cause the body 
of a thief to swell up li ke that of a toad. 
So far as I could discover, the formula with which the various kinds 
of charms are prepared only render them potent against the thief himself, and 
not against any innocent person to whom he may give or sell the fruit. Their 
interest lies in the fact that they are not directed against known individuals, but 
against persons who, subsequent to their manufacture, shall assimilate the 
objects in connexion with which they have been prepared. 
Such charms must be distinguished carefully from the road-side signs so 
common in the Patani States, though the ideas underlying them have certainly 
become to some extent confused. The road-side signs, which are frequently 
suspended from trees, are rather instances of picture language ; they include 
models of elephant hobbles, meaning that no elephant may pass that way, 
models of the bamboo yoke formerly placed on convicts* necks, meaning 
4 Trespassers will be prosecuted,* and models of spears, kris> and rattan rods, 
with a similar significance. I have seen a model of the yoke and a bamboo 
stuck full of splinters hanging side by side on a cachew tree, one showing 
that the tree was private property and menacing a thief with the law, the 
other, in case the threat should be insufficient, ready to punish him more 
directly. 
The number of objects which are used by the Patani Malays in protec¬ 
tive and curative medicine, even using the word medicine in its restricted 
sense, is very great. To begin with, as a Malay in Patani remarked to us, 
4 all animals become medicine.’ This is because it is believed that it is possible 
to transfer the qualities of an animal, which it displays in life or after death, 
to the human body by administering either its flesh or some other part of it 
internally or externally. One of the simplest instances of this kind that 1 
know of is the practice of rubbing the ashes of a crow’s feathers on the head 
to prevent the hair from becoming white. This is commonlydone in Patani, while 
in South Perak oil m which the feathers have been boiled takes the place of 
ashes. In Upper Perak and in parts of Rhaman a black worm of the family 
Gordiidae is used in making a hair-wash for similar reasons * at Patani the 
flesh of sparrows and of the £ walking* fish (Periopbibalmus and Boleopbtbalmus) 
is eaten raw as a tonic or aphrodisiac, on account of the great vigour of these 
animals ; while the left eye of an owl is sometimes carried in their belts by 
people of the same town to prevent sleeplessness, the owl being able to sleep 
all day, 
[. Perhaps the proverbial phrase used of a man who is only acquainted with his immediate surroundings, viz,, 
iarufm * kuiak dib&tya rtmpuraitg (like a toad beneath t half cocoa-nuts lie 11) is derived from this practice. 
