persons at a distance—a class which, as I have already said includes sendings of every description.[1]
Sendings.—One form of sending is described as follows: "When one individual has animosity against another, he constructs a dagger upon magic principles, and recites a prayer over it. Then, if his adversary lives at a distance, the sorcerer, seizing the dagger by the handle, stabs with the point in the direction of his enemy, whereupon the latter immediately falls sick. Blood gathers on the point of the dagger, and this the man sucks[2] exclaiming: 'Now I am satisfied,' whilst his adversary becomes speechless and expires."
Another form of Tuju, in which the bow appears to have been employed as the instrument, was related to me by a Malay magician as follows: If you wish to abduct another person's soul, you must go out of the house either at daybreak or "when the newly-risen moon looks red," and standing with the big toe of the right foot resting upon the big toe of the left, make a trumpet by putting your right hand before your mouth, and recite through it the charm, which runs as follows:—
"Ōm, I loose my shaft, I loose it, and the moon clouds over,
I loose it and the sun is extinguished,
I loose it and the stars burn dim.
Yet I shoot not at sun, moon, or stars.
But at the heart-strings of a child of the human race, so-and-so,
Cluck, cluck! soul of so-and-so.
Come and walk with me,
Come and sit with me,
Come and sleep, and share my pillow."
The text of this charm would, I think, be conclusive proof, even if there were no other, that the form of magic
- ↑ [The magician is regarded (sometimes at any rate) as sending his magic bone or stone in propria persona into the body of his enemy. Cf. Nys, Chez les Abarambos, p. 117. N. W. T.] Among the Malays, however, these ceremonies are called not sendings but pointings, and I am not at all sure how far this view applies.
- ↑ [Cf. Les Missions Catholiques, 1893, p. 345. N. W. T.]
