Charms and Witchcraft

1900

The Malay is a Firm Believer In Their Efficacy

The Malay is a firm believer in the efficacy of charms. He wears amulets, places written words of magic in houses and sports a tiger's claw as a preventive of disease. If he is specially primitive and backwoodsy, when he enters a forest he says: "Go to the right, all my enemies and assailants! May you not look upon me; let me walk alone!" To allay a storm he says: "The elephants collect, they wallow across the sea. Go to the right, go to the left, I break the tempest." When about to begin an elephant hunt, according to Thompson, he uses this charm: "The elephant trumpets, he wallows across the lake. The pot boils, the pan boils across the point. Go to the left, go to the right, spirit of grandfather (the elephant); I loose the fingers upon the bowstring."

The Malay believes in witches and witchcraft. There is the bottle imp, the Polong, which feeds on its owner's blood till the time comes for it to take possession of an enemy. Then there is a horrid thing, the Penangalan, which possesses women. Frequently it leaves its rightful abode to fly away at night to feed on blood, faking the form of the head and intestines of the person it inhabited, in which shape it wanders around.

Such beliefs may perhaps have their origin in metempsychosis, which in other ways has some foothold among the common people. For instance, elephants and tigers are believed sometimes to be human souls in disguise, and so the Malay addresses them as "grandfather" to allay their wrath and avoid direct reference to them. Crocodiles also are often regarded as sacred, and special charms are used in fishing for them. One such, given by Maxwell, is as follows: "Oh, Dangsari, lotus flower, receive what I send thee. If thou receivest it not, may thy eyes be torn out." — R. Clyde Ford in Popular Science Monthly.

The Bird of Paradise

1878

The Jardin d'Acclimatation, Paris, has just received some living specimens of the bird of paradise, which it has hitherto been found rarely possible to bring alive to Europe.

This bird is a native of New Guinea, the inhabitants of which country endeavor to keep up the fable relative to these specimens of the feathered tribe, by persuading the Indian merchants to whom they sell them that they have no feet, and that, as they live on air and light, they have neither stomach nor intestines. That belief was encouraged by the form given by the Papuan naturalists or dealers to prepare them for sale, by drying the bird with its plumes after taking out the inside and tearing off the legs.

It is rarely found excepting in the countries which produce spices, and particularly in Australasia. New Guinea, which is comprised in that part of the world, and the Aroo Islands near, contain many specimens. The pineapple and nutmeg tree grow there in the midst of immense forests, and supply their principal food. The Papuans, barbarians as they are, derive considerable profit from the sale of the bird, and take it with nets or sticks smeared with birdlime. In the latter case they take it alive, but as it is very difficult to preserve, they prefer to use the bow and arrow.

The manner in which this chase is carried on is very curious. The men climb silently in the dark like cats into the trees in which the bird sleeps, pass the night in the forks of the branches, and at daybreak shoot at the birds while they are still asleep, with very light arrows made from the ribs of leaves of the palm-tree. Their address is so marvelous that the bird generally falls to the ground intact, stunned rather than wounded. The men continue as long as they can, and then descend to the ground and proceed to the preparation and embalming of their victims.

The Malays of Malacca are the chief purchasers of the birds, which they carry to the Molucca Isles, whence they are sent to India, China and Europe.