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428 MEDICINE CHAP.
medicine. I may take this opportunity of pointing out
that I have used the word "mischief" to translate it
when dealing with the charms, as this is the nearest
English equivalent which I have been able to find ;
indeed, it appears a very fairly exact equivalent when
we remember its use in English in such phrases as
" It's got the mischief in it," which is sometimes used
even of inanimate objects.
There are a hundred and ninety of these mischiefs,
according to some, according to others, a hundred
and ninety-three. Their origin is very variously given.
One authority says that the first badi sprang from
three drops of Adam's blood (which were spilt on
the ground). Another (rather inconsistently) declares
that the "mischief" (badi) residing in an iguana
(biawak) was the origin of all subsequent "mischiefs,"
yet adds later that the " Heart of Timber" was their
origin, and yet again that the yellow glow
at sunset
(called Mambang Kuning or the " Yellow Deity ")
was their origin. These two latter are, perhaps the
most usual theories, but a third medicine-man declares
that the first badivras the offspring of the Jin ("genie")
Ibn Ujan (Ibnu Jan?), who resides in the clouds (or
caverns ?) and hollows of the hills. Thus do Malay
medicine-men disagree.
These "mischiefs" reside not only in animate, but
also in inanimate objects. Thus in one of the ele-
phant-charms given in the Appendix several different
" "
mischiefs are described as residing in earth, ant-
hills, wood, water, stone, and elephants (or rhinoceroses)
respectively. Again, in a deer-charm, various " mis-
chiefs " are requested to return to their place of origin,
i.e. to the Iguana (strictly speaking, the Monitor
Lizard), Heart of Timber, and the Yellow Glow of