Evolution of Malay Magic

Evolution of Malay Magic

pp. 8-9 sun & moon

p. 8	*white jinn in sun guardeth the gates of the sky {cf. Vis.n.u, door-keeper according to Atharva Veda}*
pp. 8-9	his brother 7-headed black jinn in moon hath (p. 9) "one foot on the heart of the earth"

pp. 19-20 address to the "banshee" Lansuyar who flieth "by night" (p. 19) [in upper Perak]

p.	*"if thou alightest on __"*	*thy name (aspect) is __*
19	a tree	Mistress Stickfast
	[boulder projecting out of] a rapid	San Ranga
	a tree-stump	Fair Bhuta
20	the ground	Fair Swaying One
	the house-ladder	Fair Sitter
	house-door	Fair Bar-door
	roof-beam	Fair Peerer
	the mat	Fair Seated Woman

+Lansuyar

"in the shape of an owl with the face of a cat." (pp. 18-19) parentage of +Lansuyar: "sprung from the lid of a cooking-pot in a deserted house" (p. 19)	*owl-deity is skull-headed in Codex Borgia, p. 14; but cranium is in lidded pot beside goddess holding small feline (cf. cat) on in Codex Borgia, p. 57*
for praegnant woman, threatened by *Lansuyar: "betel-vine which must be given her to chew" (p. 19): cf. "twenty-five quids of betel" (p. 108) at state-regalia-renovation festival at upper Perak	the scenes on p. 57 are followed by 25 more scenes on pp. 58-60 of Codex Borgia

spirits which assume animal- &c.- forms

p.	*spirit*	*function*	*form*
16-17	+‘To S`ri Lam {cf. Maya lam}		female crocodile
18	+Lansuyar	"in the nape of her neck is a hole, which she is terrified may be found" (p. 19) {cf. Inuit sun-goddess having fleshless back which she is reluctant to reveal}	owl with the face of a cat
20	+Pengalan	seeketh to suck blood from woman giving birth; if successful, death of the woman is the result. "a wman’s head and neck with trailing viscera, which shine at night"	"The lights of a hill in Perak" called C^ankat Asah [?= "rock ... mushrooms in stone ... on famous mountains by the sea. ... All of them glow in the darkness" (AM&R, p. 179, quoted in Taoism and the Arts of China, p. 129)]
21	Bajan	"is kept in a stoppered bamboo vessel and fed with eggs"	civet-cat
	Polon	"Every day the owner must feed this familiar with blood from his or her finger."	chirping "bird-like"
	Pe^lsit	nigget, owned by woman, who "must seize the tongue, whereupon ... the child vanishes. ... the tongue that can change into this familiar must be bitten out" (p. 22) {cf. <arabian belief in spirit-woman who biteth out tongue of man; cf. also Bodish ro-lans}	house-cricket

pp. 29-30 Jibra>il (Gabriel), the angel of revelation

p. 29	6	pinions, each composed of:
	100	smaller wings;
		he is covered with saffron hairs;
		between his eyen is a sun, and
		betwixt every 2 hairs of his body a moon & stars.
	3	times every day he diveth:
	360	times into the "Sea of Light", and
		every drop of water from his wings createth a Ruh.aniyun ("spiritual") angel in his likeness
pp. 29-30	2	of his pinions he expandeth only to destroy a hamlet or town.
p. 30	2	green pinions open only annually on the "night of destiny", when from the deciduous destiny-tree there fall leaves, each inscribed with the name of someone fated to die during that year.

p. 30 Mika>il (Michael), who originated 500 years earlier than Gabriel

	is covered with hairs, every hair possessing:
1,000,000	faces [tongues?] having:
1,000	mouths, each mouth containing:
1,000	tongues; while his
1,000,000	eyen by weeping create kerubi^m in his likeness. These Kerubi^m control rain.

p. 30 >israf>il (*S‘rap>el), who originated 500 years earlier than Mika>il

	whose head is level with the Throne of >al-lah while his feet reach lower than the lowest earth.
[4]	With one pinion he envelopeth the west, with another the east; with a third he covereth his lower body, and with a fourth he covereth his upper body.
	Between his eyen is the jewel-"tablet of fate".
	His duty it will be to sound the last trump on the Day of Judgement.

pp. 30-31 [<azra>il,] the angel of death

p. 30	[7]	bigger than the 7 earths & the 7 heavens, he was kept chained with:
	70,000	chains until the creation of >adam.
pp. 30-31		When he was seen by the angels, they fell into a faint that lasted for:
p. 31	1,000	years.
	7,000	pinions hath he.
		His body is full of eyen, as many as there are living beings. Whenever a mortal dieth, an eye [of his] closeth. He hath:
	4	faces. When he taketh the life of a prophet or angel, he sheweth the face on his head; the face on his chest is shewn to [ordinary] believers, the face on his back to infidels, and the face on the soles of his two feet to Jnun.

p. 31 Kiraman Katibin "Noble Writers" recording one’s deeds

goods deeds are written down by the angel on one’s right,

bad by the angel on one’s left.

p. 32 [alternative accounts of] origin of the Jnun, by colors

*[also p. 58] originated from mangrove-leaf that fell into __*	*__ Jnun*	*originated from the __ of S‘akti-muna ["power of silence’], a great serpent*
	king of	breath
sea	white	whites of the eyen
gate of forest	black	iris-es of the eyen
	blue
green sky	green
	yellow
	lightning	voice

{"green sky" is also a Daoist notion}

p. 34 proper shape of a descendant of Sah^r: as witnessed by Alexandros ho Megalos

	huge as a masjid (mosque), having:
7	heads, each with:
2	faces, each face having
4	eyen;
2	snakey locks of hair on each forehead.
	duck’s feet, and bull’s tail

Sah^r was the jinn who stole [magical] ring of Sulayman (Solomon, S^lomoh); and assuming Sulayman’s shape reigned in his stead for 40 days.

numerics of Jnun

p. 32	19	Zabanyah ("Guardian") angels, under Malik as their chief, are in charge of Hell.
p. 34	10	daughters of >iblis [p. 35 queen of S^eba> had Jinni mother & a human father]

p. 39 Jnun of the royal trumpets of Perak

the 4 Children of the Iron Pestle

Old Grannie from Up-river

the Prince of the Rolling Waves

the Children of the Gaffer Who Dwelleth in the Sky

p. 48 similes for the universe

*the __*	*as __*
world	tray
sky	umbrella

p. 48 KUN (Muslim "word of creation") as tree

"the seed was created and from the seed the root, from the root the stem, and from the stem the leaves" {cf. living metallic trees of Aladdin in the 1001 Nights}

{KUN was a city of brass (1^st DBRY h-YMYM 18:8)}

p. 57 address to the Earth-Spirit

*at / in __*	*thou art __*
daybreak	Lord of the Sun-Ray
morning	Lord of Fortune
mid-day	Lord of the World
evening	Lord of the Evening Light
high forest	Leafy Orchid
mid plain	Flat One
rivulet	Flowing One
water-spring	Trickler

origins [as mentioned in charms]

p. 58	female toad was mother of tiger
p. 59	<ali: his voice is thunder, the flash of his weapons is forked ligtning

body-tissues & winds in them

p. 62 body-tissues created by archangels		pp. 176-177 winds in body, corresponding to steps toward union with >al-lah
*were created by __*	*body-tissues*	*wind in __*	*stages*
Jibra>il	skin & hair	skin & pores	1^st observance of law
Mika>il	flesh & blood	3^rd flesh & blood	truth
>israf>il	bones & sinews	2^nd sinews & bones	mystic path under spiritual guide
<azra>il	life & seed	4^th life & seed	perfect gnosis

pp. 62-63 sites of the palaces of h^alif-s within the body of the exorcized

p.	*the __ (organ)*	*is the palace of __ (h^alif)*	*p. 173 [alternative associations of organ with h^alif-s]]*
62	heart	>abu Bakr	liver: for divination to determine where river may be forded
	lungs	<omar	spleen
	spleen	<otman	lungs
63	gallbladder	<ali	gallbladder

pp. 72-73 animals as souls of plants & of metal-ores & of constructed dwellings

p.	*the soul of __*	*is __ (animal)*
72	camphor-tree	cicada
	rice	grasshopper
	rattan	stickinsect
	eaglewood[-tree], coconut-palm, human	bird
73	Nur-i-Muh.ammad "Radiance of Muh.ammad"	nuri ("parrot") of Muh.ammad
	tin-ore	[water-]buffalo
	gold	barking-deer [in Kelantan]
	house	cricket [in Negri Sembilan]
	dug-out canoe	firefly [in Patani]
	large boat	snake [in Patani]

[according to the Besisi] the soul of a large boat is "a bright snake with seven souls in the form of iridescent rainbows." {cf. Norse serpent-ships, C^imu rainbow-serpent-ships, and African rainbow-serpent gods (Dan-ballah in Dahomey, etc.)}

p. 84 the voyages over the 4 seas

*[also p. 81] voyage upon "the sea that is __"*	to __ (country) [taken backwards]
black	Siam
green	China
blue	India
purple	Rome

{Roman imperial purple, etc.}

p. 93 origins of the Jnun of the soil of Mt. Meru

*born in the __*	*are [Jnun] called __*
clouds	Beautiful Billowy Ones
sky	Pendent Ones
fig-tree	Peerers
water	Crawlers
paths	Up-Stickers

these "idols of iron" (p.92) may be enforcers of oaths, for "The drinking of water in which iron has been put strengthens an oath" (p. 74). "I live in a fort with seven walls of steel." (p. 93) [This may be of Iranian derivation, as per characterization by Herodotos of Hagmatana (capital of Media) as surrounded with multiple rings of concentric walls.]

p. 94 guardian-spirits

*guardian*	*of __*
Nuh.	earth
Ya<qub	rock
Luqman	iron
Sulayman	"all living things"

"all living things" would include the any antient worked flintstone "(which the Malay atkes to be a meteorite), as it has life and will attract lightning to disappear in a flash" (p. 74).

p. 94 [herewith are invoked the :]

44	angels
4	archangels
30	chapters of the Qur>an

referrring to "the shadow of one beloved by ... angels forty-and-four." (p. 68) {here, the stipulation that "One should not walk upon a[nother] person’s shadow’ (loc. cit.) is Hawai>ian et al.: the Besisi shadow-soul (loc. cit.) = [Maori] ata—this would be distinct from the se^mangat "spark"[-soul] (p. 64)}

p. 95 [for exorcism of the land-site, the exorcizer’s altar is strewn with :] "clods red and black" {cf. [Kemetian] DSR.t & KM.t = [Aztec] Tillan Tlapallan}

p. 158 monthly rituals of repetitive recitations at midnight with one’s eyen closed, to be followed by gazing: in order to obtain prognostication (by color) of one’s own death during that month

*month*	*# of recitations*	*of the spell "__"*	*gazing at __*	*which may appear __*
1^st	10	Say, >al-lah is one!	moon	black
5^th & 6^th			lamp
7^th & 8^th	7	Say, I seek refuge with the Lord of the Daybreak!	water in a bowl	red
of Fasting	9	Praise be to >al-lah	moon	"one’s shadow"
11^th & 12^th	1	the creed [There is no >ila but >al-lah]	sky	red

[ with "one’s shadow" in moon, connect woman who "tries to cast her own shadow" as it is cast by the moon on the night before the full moon (p. 21)]

p. 144 tiered plat-form bier for funerals of nobility

5	storeys of bier of commoner-chief of Jelebu
7	storeys of bier of raja
9	maidens seated on the litter: 8 holding the corpse in position & 1 holding plaintain-plant
16	girls are used to support the corpse of royalty

p. 164 numerics of the Basmala (Bismillah)

600	times written down & worn, it will bring honor
50	times read over tyrant, will end tyranny
786	times recitation for 7 consecutive days, to gain desire
61	times written down & worn, it will cure barrenness

pp. 174-175 nature & accouterments of the Perfect Man

p.	*the / a __*	*is his __*
174	the Throne of >al-lah	heart
	the Pen of >al-lah	mind
	the guarded Tablet of >al-lah	soul
175	Jibra>il	on his right
	Mika>il	on his left
	hooded snake (cobra)	loin-cloth
	elephant in muste	steed
	lightning	ear-posy
	tiger	shadow

p. 177 S.ufi correspondences between worlds and parts of the body

*the __ world*	*is in the __*
material	tongue
invisible intelligible	windpipe
"world of power ... of the divine nature"	"first stomach of ruminants"

pp. 177-180 The Fortress of the Unity of >al-lah [Kelantan MSS.]

pp. 179-180 old fortress = 7 attributes of man:-

life

knowledge

power

will

hearing

sight

speech

AM&R = James R. Ware (tr.): Alchemy, Medicine, and Religion in the China of A.D. 320. Cambridge (MA): MIT Pr, 1966.

R. O. Winstedt: Shaman Saiva and Sufi. Constable & Co. Ltd., London, 1925.