Page 211 - Malay sketches

MALAY SUPERSTITIONS

patient is in a state of delirium and then to question
him or her as to who is the author of the trouble.
This should be done by some independent person of

authority who is supposed to be able to ascertain
the truth.
A further and convincing proof is then to call in
"
a Pawang" skilled in dealing with wizards (in
Malay countries they are usually men), and if he
knows his business his power is such that he will
the sorcerer in one while he in
place room, and,
razor,
another scrapes an iron vessel with a the
culprit's hair will fall off as though the razor had
been applied to his head instead of to the vessel !
That he is the of
is
supposing culprit ; if not,
course he will pass through the ordeal without
damage.
I have been assured that the shaving process is
as the vessel the head
so efficacious that, represents
of the person standing his trial, wherever it is
scraped, the wizard's hair will fall off in a corre-
sponding spot. It might be supposed that under
these circumstances the accused is reasonably safe,
but this test of guilt is not always employed.
What more commonly happens is that when several
cases of unexplained sickness have occurred in a
with one or two
village, possibly deaths, the people