Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1904-12-01

SeOn ana also 10 keep away the Tiger.
he chants:
My hut's name is the magic prince,
My decoy's name is Princ Distraction.
D~istraught be ye, o Kapor (pigeon),
D~istraught be we, o Pudding (pigeon),
D~istraught with desire to enter our
bundle.
After this the pigeon has no choice
but to come.
But Of spirits the Malay has no lack.
Without cours to animals his black
genii number 1893, whose origin is traced
to the drops Of blood which spurted up
to heaven when Cain and Abel bit
their thumbs, while the white genii
have an equally sanguinary origin.
Birth spirits are a source Of endless
worry to the Maiays. Laagsa:r, Cor IL
stance, once a woman Of wonderful
beauty, who died from the shock of
hearing that her child was stillborn,
clapped her hands and without further
warning flew up in a tree. She is now
to be identified by her long black hair,
her green robe and tapering nails, but
her character is sufficiently explained
when it is said that her raven tresses
conceal the hole In the back Of her
rareugh tyhiab she sucks the
blood of children. The Penanggalan Is
another vampire. The Penanggalan, so
the fable goes, was once a woman
Discovered sitting in a vinegar vat by
a curious male, she was startled by the
query:
what are you doing here?"
what business is it of yours? ?" was
her quick and Enthusiastically feminine
reply. But she was so startled or so
angry that In the excitement of the
moment she kicked her own chin, the
skin about her neck split, and her head.
with stomach attached, few up to A
tree, whinnFing as it fed.
The practice Of medicine is, of course,
n IL. which the spirits play a large
part. The physician-Bomor, as he is
named-when summoned to a sick bed
has a unique method of diagnosis. He
resorts to divinatlon by means Of
omens taken from the smoke of the
burning censor or of the water jar GER
emony. This latter consists of bring
Ing three jars of water into the sick
mans room. decorated with a fringe OF
plated cocoanut leaves called cent?
peds' feet" A fourth jar contains
flowers to charm the soul of the in
valid. In addition. there is a tray con
tanning all the adjuncts of Malay mag
ic, of which incense is an essential
ma ri NxThAn oil - taaIx fIn Damon
begins his diagnosis by planting a
wax taper on the rim Of each of the
three jars and sprinkling them with in
cense. With extreme care he catches
the first puff of smoke i'm his nostrils.
Everything depends upon its odor. Ii
1t be sweet. which is hard to believe,
1t shows that the patient will recover.
II the odor is ~burned-and 1t is hard to
see how 1t can be otherwise-the sign
Is unfavorable, and it will need ex-
tended wrestling with the spirits to
effect a cure. But IL the odor be actu-
ally bad, then there Is nothing to do
but prepare for the funeral. Happily.
the Malayan idea Of a bad odor Is far
less developed than that Of the occi-
dental.
But the black art is perhaps the
most interesting phase OF Malay magic.
When the Malay wishes to destroy his
enemy, without the discomfort Of actu-
ally killing him. although at this he is
usually ready enough, he takes wax
from a deserted comb, molds it into an
image of his foe, decorates 1t with the
eyebrows or the hair of the foe, and
then slowly scorches the wax figure
over a lamp for seven nights, reciting:
1T Is not the wax I am scorching. II
Is the liver, the heart and the spleen of
- that I.scorch," naming his enemy.
or course, after this there is nothing
for the victim to do but to die.
When one seeks to torture rather
than to kill his foe the approved Malay
method Ia to make the wax figure rep
r~esenting not the foe. but his corpse.
Then. II he desires that his enemy shall
become blind, he sticks pins In his eyes,
and similarly ~designates any other por-
ton of his anatomy he desires to aflict.
Then he buries the image across his
pathway and awaits the accomplish
ment Of his design, for which he has
employed every form Of Incarnation he
knows- II may be the Spirits will not