[217] J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 3, pp. 30, 31. Ordeals by immersion of the hands in boiling oil or molten tin are also mentioned in the old Johor Code of Laws. Vide Crawford, Dict. of Ind. Isl., s.v. Ordeal. [↑]
[218] A number of these diagrams, all of which are in the author’s possession, are shown in the illustrations to this section. They seem to be closely connected with the system of “magic squares,” which has probably come to Europe from the East. [↑]
[220] “The original Javanese week, like that of the Mexicans, consists of five days, and its principal use, like that of the same people, is to determine the markets or fairs held in the principal villages or districts. This arbitrary period has probably no better foundation than the relation of the numbers to that of the fingers of the hand. The names of the days of this week are as follows:—Lăggi, Pahing, Pon, Wagi, Kliwon.... The Javanese consider the names of the days of their native week to have a mystical relation to colours, and to the divisions of the horizon.
“According to this whimsical interpretation, the first means white, and the east; the second, red, and the south; the third, yellow, and the west; the fourth, black and the north; the fifth, mixed colour, and focus, or centre. It is highly probable that, like the week of the continental nations of Asia and Europe, the days were named after the national gods. In an ancient manuscript found in Java, which will be afterwards referred to, the week of five days is represented by five human figures, two of which are female and three male.”—Crawfurd, Hist. of the Indian Archipelago, vol. i. pp. 289, 290. [↑]
[221] Communicated by Sir George Birdwood of the India Office.
But in Bali S’ri is the wife of Vishnu, or more usually of Shiva. “As goddess of the rice-fields she is called S’rî ... and has temples on the sawahs [rice-fields], and on the roads between them.”—Misc. Papers relating to Indo-China, etc., Second Series, vol. ii. p. 105.
She is frequently mentioned in Malay invocations connected with rice-planting; vide p. 89, supra, and App. [cix]. [↑]
[222] Cf. such words in Malay as panchawarna or pancharona (lit. of five colours), panchalogam (lit. of five metals), which are of Indian origin, with the Indian pancharangi, panchatantra, etc. [↑]