FASCICULI MALATENSES 
53 
To carry the principle a little further, the bones of the serow (, Nemorbaedus 
swettenbami), one of the most sure-footed of mammals, are believed to protect 
a man from falling, and, should he fall despite them, are rubbed on the injured 
limb or body to heal it. The tongue is considered even more powerful both 
as a preventative and as a cure, and it is said that were a man to fall from the 
top of a mountain and then rub himself with the tongue of the serow he would 
be whole forthwith. The serow itself is said to lick itself whole should it meet 
with an accident. 
Medicine of the kind is not necessarily of an animal nature, for many 
plants and even stones are used in the same way, A native of Patani showed 
me a belt which he wore to render himself invulnerable. It contained a number 
of water worn pebbles bearing a more or less fanciful resemblance to different 
parts of the human body. The man believed that they actually were specimens 
of these parts * become stone * (jadi bittu ). By contact with the belt his body 
would become as impenetrable as stone. 
These instances, which are only a few out of many which might be adduced, 
are all examples of allopathic treatment, the quality desired being transferred 
from an object which possesses it in an eminent degree to a body which is, or 
may be, lacking in it ; but Malay medicine is just as frequently homoeopathic, 
a cure or immunity being brought about by contact with or assimilation of an 
object resembling the cause of the disease. Thus the simple bangles and 
anklets of brass or silver wire that Malay children generally wear are really 
made in the likeness of worms, to protect them against internal parasites. 
Roots which have the natural form of a snake are preserved as charms against 
snakes, and also, by an extension of the same theory, against scorpions and 
centipedes. Moreover, they are also administered internally as a cure for the 
bites or stings of all these animals, a portion being scraped off and taken with 
or without other drugs. There is a fine specimen of such a root, collected 
among the Samsams of Trang, now in the Pitt Rivers Museum, 
The theory of all these charms and drugs is too obvious to need comment, 
chiefly because they deal with an object with which we are well acquainted, 
namely, the human body; but it is not only the human body which is so doctored. 
We have seen how the wind can be called by imitating its whistle, and Patani 
sailors sometimes Carry a living specimen of the slow lemur (Nyctkebus tardigradtts ) 
with them, because its cry, probably for the same reason, is said to summon 
a favourable breeze. The musical windmills used to call the wind' have a 
similar function, and it would not be difficult to find other instances of a 
cognate nature ; indeed, many are given in Mr. Skeat’s valuable work on 
(. Antea , p, S 
