Page 169 - Malay sketches

BER-HANTU

ance, there is still the satisfaction of knowing that
everything was done for them which love and skill
could devise, and the issue was with God. La-
"
Muhammad Rasul-Allah
illahd il- Allah, There is
but one God, and Muhammad is His Prophet."
This pious confession of faith has, however,
nothing to do with the ber-hantu; it comes in after-
wards when the seal of death is so on the
evidently
of the sufferer that his friends cease to call on
lips
the Devil, and commend the soul of the dying man
to God. The ber-hantu of course, a survival of
is,
prae-Islam darkness, and the priests abominate it,
or say they do ; but they have to be a little careful,
affects the of
because the highest society practice
the Black Art.
To return to the King's house. In the middle
of the floor was spread a puddal, a small narrow
mat, at one end of which was seated a middle-aged
woman dressed like a man in a short-sleeved
a and a scarf fastened
jacket, trousers, sarong,
tightly round her waist. At the other end of the
mat was a large newly-lighted candle in a candle-
stick. Between the woman and the taper were two
or three small vessels containing rice coloured with
turmeric, parched padi, and perfumed water. An
attendant sat near at hand.