380
onslaughts on pregnant women and those in childbed in other gampōngs.
Like the Sundanese kunti, the burōng sometimes announces her presence by a shrill scream, a sustained nasal iiii[1]! But she is most to be feared when she creeps upon her victim without any such warning. This she does more especially when a pregnant woman heedlessly ventures out of doors after sunset, or when her husband or some other inmate of the house after having been out for the evening comes in directly without taking the proper precautions[2].
Occasional loss of consciousness and delirium are regarded as unmistakeable symptoms of possession by a burōng. As the women from their earliest youth hear countless stories about these evil spirits and are convinced that possession by them is the greatest danger that threatens them during pregnancy or shortly after confinement, it is not astonishing that their ravings while delirious appear like utterances from the mouth of the burōng.
Like the zārs[3] which are wont to "possess" the women of Mekka, the Achehnese burōngs have certain desires which they express to the comprehension of expert enquirers through the lips of the victims whom they have bereft of their senses. These experts do not confine themselves simply to repeating a tangkay or exorcising incantation; they must first know what burōng it is they have to do with. They thus enquire whence they come and what are their intentions and wishes. The last question is generally that first answered, and the rest may be deduced from the reply.
Where the delirious patient through the interpretation of the expert expresses a desire for murōng-leaves (the leaves of the plant known as kèlor, which are used as a vegetable), for dried buffalo's flesh (balu) and salted ducks' eggs (bòh itéʾ jruëʾ), it is then regarded as certain that it is the dreaded Burōng Tanjōng that has to be contended with.
As long as the woman lies over the fire (madeuëng), that is to say for the space of 44 days after childbirth, some anxiety is felt in regard to the burōng, but most of all during the first 10 days, and especially on the 3d, 5th, 7th and 10th days[4]. During this period care is taken
- ↑ Thus the making of such a sound is called by the Achehnese meuʾiʾi lagèë burōng.
- ↑ See p. 373 above.
- ↑ See my Mekka, vol. II, pp. 124 et seq.: also M. J. de Goeje and Th. Nöldeke in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländ-Gesellschaft, Vol. XLIV pp. 480 and 701.
- ↑ These are, it will be noted, the very days which are considered as of importance after a marriage or a death.
