Chapter VI
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One of the forms of lustration by water, however, appears rather to take the place of a sub-rite, forming an integral portion of a large class of ceremonies, such as those relating to Building, Fishing, Agriculture, Marriage, and so forth. Hence it will be necessary to give a general sketch of its leading features in the present context.
The ceremony of lustration by water, when it takes the form of the sub-rite referred to, is called "Tepong Tawar," which properly means "the Neutralising Rice-flour (Water)," "neutralising" being used almost in a chemical sense, i.e. in the sense of "sterilising" the
## active element of poisons, or of destroying the active potentialities
of evil spirits.
The rite itself consists in the application [142] of a thin paste made by mixing rice-flour with water: this is taken up in a brush or "bouquet" of leaves and applied to the objects which the "neutralisation" is intended to protect or neutralise, whether they be the posts of a house, the projecting ends of a boat's ribs (tajok p'rahu), the seaward posts of fishing-stakes (puchi kelong), or the forehead and back of the hands of the bride and bridegroom.
The brush must be first fumigated with incense, then dipped into the bowl which contains the rice-water, and shaken out almost dry, for if the water runs down the object to which it is applied it is held to "portend tears," whereas if it spreads equally all round (benchar) it is lucky. The composition of the brush, which is considered to be of the highest importance, appears to vary, but only within certain limits. It almost invariably, in Selangor, consists of a selection of leaves from the following plants, which are made up in small bouquets of five, seven, or nine leaves each, and bound round with ribu-ribu (a kind of small creeper), or a string of shredded tree bark (daun t'rap).
The following is a list of the leaves generally used:--
1. Leaves of the grass called sambau dara, which is said to be the symbol of a "settled soul" (`alamat menetapkan semangat), and which hence always forms the core of the bouquet. [143]
2. The leaves of the selaguri, which appears to be "a shrub or small tree with yellow flowers (Clerodendron disparifolium, Bl., Verbenaceæ; or Sida rhombifolia, L., Malvaceæ, a common small shrub in open country)," [144] which is described as one of the first of shrubs (kayu asal), and is said to be used as a "reminder of origin" (peringatan asal).
3. The leaves of the pulut-pulut (the exact identity of which I have not yet ascertained, but which may be the Urena lobata, L., one of the Malvaceae), which is said to be used for the same purpose as the preceding.
4. The leaves of the gandarusa (Insticia gandarusa, L., Acanthaceæ), a plant described as "often cultivated and half-wild--a shrub used in medicine."
The selection of this plant is said to be due to its reputation for scaring demons (`alamat menghalaukan hantu). So great is its efficacy supposed to be, that people who have to go out when rain is falling and the sun shining simultaneously--a most dangerous time to be abroad, in Malay estimation,--put a sprig of the gandarusa in their belts.
5. The leaves of the gandasuli (which I have not yet been able to identify, no such name appearing in Ridley's plant-list, but which I believe to be a water-side plant which I have seen, with a white and powerfully fragrant flower). [145] It is considered to be a powerful charm against noxious birth-spirits, such as the Langsuir.
6. The leaves of the sapanggil (which is not yet identified).
7. The leaves of the lenjuang merah, or "the common red dracæna" (Cordyline terminalis, var. ferrea, Liliaceæ). [146] This shrub is planted in graveyards, and occasionally at the four corners of the house, to drive away ghosts and demons.
8. The leaves of the sapenoh (unidentified), a plant with big round leaves, which is always placed outside the rest of the leaves in the bunch.
9. To the above list may be perhaps added the satawar, sitawar or tawar-tawar (Costus speciosus, L., Scitamineæ, and Forrestia, spp. Commelinaceæ); and
10. The satebal (Fagræa racemosa, Jack., Loganiaceæ).
Leaves of the foregoing plants and shrubs are made up, as has been said, in small sets or combinations of five, seven, or even perhaps of nine leaves a piece. These combinations are said to differ according to the object to which the rice-water is to be applied. It is extremely unlikely, however, that all magicians should make the same selections even for the same objects--rather would they be likely to make use of such leaves on the list as happen to be most readily available. Still, however, as the only example of such differentiation which I have yet been able to obtain, I will give the details of three separate and distinctive combinations, which were described to me by a Selangor magician:--
(1) For a wedding ceremony sambau dara tied round with a selaguri string of shredded pulut-pulut tree-bark. sapanggil sapenoh
(2) For blessing gandarusa tied with the fishing-stakes selaguri creeper ribu-ribu. sapanggil lenjuang merah sapenoh
(3) For the ceremony of lenjuang tied with taking the rice-soul merah ribu-ribu. selaguri pulut-pulut sapanggil sapenoh
Further inquiry and the collection of additional material will no doubt help to elucidate the general principles on which such selections are made.
Short rhyming charms are very often used as accompaniments of the rite of rice-water, but appear to be seldom if ever repeated aloud. The following is a specimen, and others will be found in the Appendix: [147]--
"Neutralising Rice-paste, true Rice-paste, And, thirdly, Rice-paste of Kadangsa! Keep me from sickness, keep me from death, Keep me from injury and ruin."
Other not less important developments of the idea of lustration by water are to be found in such ceremonies as the bathing of mother and child after a birth and the washing of the floor (basoh lantei) upon similar occasions, the bathing of the sick, of bride and bridegroom at weddings, of corpses (meruang), [148] and the annual bathing expeditions (mandi Safar), which are supposed to purify the persons of the bathers and to protect them from evil (tolak bala).
Fasting, or the performance of religious penance, which is now but seldom practised, would appear to have been only undertaken in former days with a definite object in view, such as the production of the state of mental exaltation which induces ecstatic visions, the acquisition of supernatural powers (sakti), and so forth.
The fast always took place, of course, in a solitary spot, and not unfrequently upon the top of some high and solitary hill such as Mount Ophir (Gunong Ledang), on the borders of Malacca territory. Frequently, however, much lower hills, or even plains which possessed some remarkable rock or tree, would be selected for the purpose.
Such fasting, however, did not, as sometimes with us, convey to the Malays the idea of complete abstinence, as the magicians informed me that a small modicum of rice contained in a ketupat (which is a small diamond-shaped rice-receptacle made of plaited cocoa-nut leaf) was the daily "allowance" of any one who was fasting. The result was that fasts might be almost indefinitely prolonged, and the thrice-seven-days' fast of 'Che Utus upon Jugra Hill, on the Selangor coast, [149] is still one of the traditions of that neighbourhood, whilst in Malay romances and in Malay tradition this form of religious penance is frequently represented as continuing for years.
Finally, I would draw attention to the strong vein of Sympathetic Magic or "make believe" which runs through and leavens the whole system of Malay superstition. The root-idea of this form of magic has been said to be the principle that "cause follows from effect."
"One of the principles of sympathetic magic is that any effect may be produced by imitating it.... If it is wished to kill a person, an image of him is made and then destroyed; and it is believed that through a certain physical sympathy between the person and his image, the man feels the injuries done to the image as if they were done to his own body, and that when it is destroyed he must simultaneously perish." [150]
The principle thus described is perhaps the most important of all those which underlie the "Black Art" of the Malays.
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