Generally the next thing they do is to move faster and faster, till they rush round the Pagar Api as hard as they can, still singing their incantation. One of their number suddenly falls to the floor and remains motionless. The others sit down round him. The motionless manang is covered over with a blanket, and all wait while his spirit is supposed to hurry away to the other world to find the wandering soul and bring it back. Presently he revives, and looks vacantly round like a man just waking out of sleep. Then he raises his right hand, clenched as if holding something. That hand contains the soul, and he proceeds to the patient and solemnly returns it to the body of the sick man through the crown of his head, muttering at the same time more words of incantation. This “catching of the soul” (nangkap samengat) is the great end to which all that has preceded leads up. One function remains to complete the cure. A live fowl must be waved over the patient, and as he does so, the leader sings a special invocation of great length. The animal is afterwards killed as an offering to the spirits, and eaten by the manangs.
I have given a general account of all Pelian or manang performances. There are different kinds of ceremonies, according to the advice of the manang or the fee the patient is prepared to pay. In the following list are the names of the principal Pelian. If a patient fail to recover after one kind of ceremony, the manangs often recommend another and more expensive one.
1. Betepas (“sweeping”): At the time of the birth of each individual, a plant is supposed to grow up in the other world. If this plant continues to grow well, then the man enjoys good and robust health; if it droops, the man’s health suffers. When a man, therefore, has bad dreams or feels slightly unwell for a few days, his plant in Hades is said to be in a bad condition, and the manang is called to weed and sweep around it, and by doing so improve the condition of the plant, and consequently the health of the man. This is the first and cheapest function of the manang. In this he does not “catch the soul,” as is done in the other ceremonies. All he does is to mutter some incantation and wave a fowl over the person.
2. Berenchah (“making an assault”): The door between the private room and the public veranda is thrown open, and the manangs march backwards and forwards between room and veranda. Each manang carries two swords, one in each hand, and he beats these against each other, and they rush at the patient as if to attack him. This is supposed to be making an assault against the evil spirits and scattering them on all sides.
3. Berua (“swinging”): A swing is hung up outside the door of the sick person’s room. The manang sits in this swing, with the double object of catching the man’s soul, if it leave his body, and also of frightening any evil spirit that may come near to hurt the man.
4. Betanam pentik (“planting a pentik”): A pentik is a roughly carved wooden representation of a man. The manang rushes through the house three times with this figure, and then plants it in the ground at the foot of the ladder of the house, and near it is put a winnowing-basket, a cooking-pot, and the piece of wood used in weaving to press the threads together. The figure is planted in the ground in the evening. If it remain till the morning in an upright position, recovery is certain; but if it be inclined either to the right or left, it is an omen of death.
5. Bepancha (“making a pancha”): A pancha is a swing erected on the tanju, or open-air platform, of the house. In this swing the manang sits, and by the movement of his feet “kicks away” the disease. While seated in this swing he “catches the soul” of the patient.
6. Ngelembayan (“taking a long sight”): A number of planks are laid about in the public veranda, and the manangs walk upon them, chanting their incantations. Then one of their number pretends to swoon, and is supposed to sail over rivers and seas to find the soul and bring it back.
7. Bebayak (“making a bayak, or iguana”): Some cooked rice is moulded into the shape of an iguana, and is covered over with cloths. This figure is supposed to eat up the evil spirits which cause the disease.
8. Nemuai Ka Sabayan (“making a journey to Hades”): The manangs, with hats on their heads, march up and down the house singing their incantations. While their bodies are doing this, their souls are supposed to speed away to Hades and bring back all manner of medicinal charms and talismans, as well as the wandering soul of the sick man.