What we saw was only one incident in a protracted ceremony. The whole operation extends over some three weeks. The chief woman magician (“C”) was an expert, but the other two (“B” and “D”) were admittedly learning the business.
Hose afterwards informed me that the Berantu ceremony belongs essentially to the coast tribes, and it is only near the coast that one sees it carried out with the most complete ritual.
Like other expert medical treatment, this “cure” was very expensive; probably the patient would have to pay as a fee a Chinese gong of a value of some three or four dollars, plates, cups, and other articles, to say nothing of numerous fowls.
It would require a prolonged study of the complete ceremony to understand the meaning of the ritual. The portion that I saw may perhaps thus be explained.
First the spirits who might assist in the cure were invoked; then the magician ripped open the neck and chest of the woman and collected the blood and picked up the spirit of the sickness with his fan. In the meantime I believe the spirit of the woman was resting in the maligai, the spirit, or soul, house.
With his kris the magician fought and conquered the evil spirits.
The patient’s spirit was next caught by the magician in his scarf, and holding it safely he jumped across the spot where a pillow had lain, and beside which the wooden image was placed. I do not know what this act symbolised. Her own spirit was next returned to the patient.
The magician next appeared to be himself possessed by the spirit of the disease, and he blindly and clumsily searched among the paraphernalia of the altar, and tossed the cloths about, vainly endeavouring to discover the victim. The female magician then offered him the wooden image, telling him it was the patient herself, and, further to call his attention to it, she bounced it up and down, making the Chinese bell, which was tied round its waist, tinkle as she banged it on the floor. Eventually he appeared convinced against his will, and the spirit of the disease entered into the effigy.
The magician then came to himself, and going to the sick woman, who had just returned, gave her charms to keep the evil spirit from returning.
We left Long Linai early on the twenty-eighth in the steamer and arrived at Marudi (Claudetown) at eleven o’clock a.m.—very glad to be at our journey’s end. The rest of the day was spent in unpacking, settling in and reading a heavy mail.