Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/167

Rh head, which he makes revolve from right to left at a tremendous pace, shaking at the same time his shoulders and thighs, and getting more and more violent until the whole body is quaking like a jelly, thus producing an almost painfully vivid imitation of an epileptic fit. Soon, however, he falls down in a state of what is doubtless real exhaustion, and after an interval rises again and commences to dance. The entire process is repeated several times; and a quiet interval then follows, during which the magician, sitting on the ground, replies in a high, squeaky, unnatural voice to any questions that may be put to him, not merely as regards the welfare of his patient, but even as regards private and personal matters, which are of interest only to the patient's friends and relations. In the course of this catechism the magician expounds the cause and nature of the sick man's illness, as well as the remedies which should be adopted for his recovery.

Among the oracles thus delivered at a performance attended by Mr. F. F. Laidlaw and myself in Kelantan, there was one which is perhaps well worth recording. We had arranged next day to attend a Malay bull-fight, to which we had been invited by His Highness the Raja Muda. These bull-fights are not fought on the unequal lines of the spectacles called by that name in civilised Europe, but consist of a fight on equal terms between two powerful and carefully trained bulls, which seldom do each other or anyone else much injury, and which as exhibitions of strength are exciting to watch. During the catechising of the magician to which I have alluded, he was asked to give what I believe is called the "straight tip" as to the probable winner of next day's contest, and gave as his selection a bull named Awang Ranggong. On the following afternoon Mr. Laidlaw and I were sitting on the dais next to His Highness, and when the bulls were brought on the field His Highness asked me which bull I thought looked most