Page 217 - Malay sketches

MALAY SUPERSTITIONS
On another occasion some Korinchi men appeared
and in a and there
sought hospitality Malay house,
also the fowls disappeared in the, night, and there
were unmistakable traces of the visit of a tiger, but
the next day one of the visitors fell sick, and shortly
after vomited chicken-feathers !
It is only fair to say that the Korinchi people
strenuously deny the tendencies and the power
ascribed to them, but aver that they properly belong
to the inhabitants of a district called Chenaku in
the interior of the Korinchi country. Even there,
however, it is only those who are practised in the
el&mu shir, the occult arts who are thus capable
themselves into and the
of transforming tigers,
Korinchi people profess themselves afraid to enter
the Chenaku district.
It was my misfortune some years ago to be
robbed of some valuable property, and several
Malay friends strongly advised me to take the
advice of an astrologer or other learned person who
would be able to the name of
(so they said) give
and
the thief, probably recover most of the stolen
things. I fear that I had no great faith in this
method of detection, but I was anxious to 'see what
could be done, for the East is a curious place, and
no one with an inquiring mind can have lived
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