Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

3IO NATURAL RELIGION AND FOLK-LORE part iii
And drive them forth before your knife-blade
Unto the Rock that's called Perimbun,
And there remain they, at Perimbum ;
Foul be Perimbum with them ever.
Charm against Devils.
Hong Hang become Foam,
And Foam become Rock,
And Rock become Foam !
Dash them down, to left and right.
Dash them to ground, these devils divers.
Hong Plese',1 that from the first wert Plese',
The pot's a-boil, the copper's boiling,
And lo, to left and right I brim it,
I brim it up with devils divers !
The following charm is used by the Besisi for
exorcising the Spectre Huntsman {v. p. 303, ante), an
Oriental counterpart of the "Wild Huntsman" of
the Harz mountains, so familiar to us in European
literature:
Charm against the Spectre Huntsman,
Headlong I fly to seize a peeling-knife
Wherewith to peel yon hairy betel -nut.
I've drawn my sword and walked the tree-trunk,
And sharpened me seven stakes of bamboo
To pierce thy chin, O Spectre Huntsman !
Avaunt to the left, avaunt to the right hand !
Avaunt, avaunt, thou Spectre Huntsman !
Love-charms.
The Besisi have two or three very famous love-
charms, which are, however, sometimes confused in
native accounts. The first of these, the " Buluh Per-
indu"(Bes, " ding dioi " ?) is described as a kind of
dwarf bamboo, which grows, like its no less famous
rivals the "Chinduai" and "Chingkwoi," on the steepest
and most inaccessible mountain peaks.
It is said that" in former days the members of the
travelling theatrical troupes, still a feature of the
' The Plese' (=Mal. " PclesTt ") is sucks the blood from its victim's
also called Pemprat by the liesisi, who body,
describe it as a kind of vampire, which ^ Skeat, Sel. Joitrn. v. 379, 380,