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 kĕtupat (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,[28] 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.”[29]
The principle thus described is perhaps the most important of all those which underlie the “Black Art” of the Malays.
[1] “The titles Pawang and Bomor are given by the Malays to their medicine men. The Pawang class perform magic practices in order to find ore, medicine crops, or ensure good takes of fish, etc. The Bomor usually practise their art for the cure of human disease. Both terms are, however, often used as though they were interchangeable.”—Clifford, Hik. Raja Budiman, pt. ii. p. 28 n. [↑]
[2] In Bukit Sĕnggeh the articles subject to this custom are priced as follows:—
| Padi (unhusked rice) | 3 cents a gantang (about a gallon). |
| Bĕras (husked rice) | 10 cents a gantang. |
| Kabong (i.e. palm) sugar | 2½ cents a “buku” of two pieces and weighing a kati (1⅓ lb. avoir.) |
| Cocoa-nuts | 1 cent each. |
| Hen’s eggs | ¼ cent each. |
| Duck’s eggs | ½ cent each. |