Page 81 - Malay sketches

LATAH

person filled with an inexplicable and unnatural
delight in the contemplation of the positive end
of a magnet, and when the negative end is sud-
denly turned towards him, to -see him instantly
fall down unconscious as though struck by light-
ning.
The sujets (there were two of them, a man and a
woman) described the appearance of the positive end
of the magnet as producing a beautiful blue flame
about a foot high, so exquisite in colour and beauty
that it them with As to the
transported delight.
negative end, they reluctantly explained, in hesi-
tating words and with every appearance of dread,
that there also was a flame, but a red one of fearful
and sinister import.
"
I was deeply interested in these manifestations,"
both for their own strangeness and because I had
in the Malay Peninsula seen equally extraordinary
proceedings of a somewhat similar kind.
Amongst Malays there is a well-known disease
use the word for want of a called Idtah;
(I better)
it is far more common at certain places than at others,
and amongst certain divisions of the great Malay
family. Thus while there is generally one or more
orang Idtah to be found in every kampong in Krian,
where the Malays are mostly from Kedah, in other
E
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