Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/113

Rh The piece of inscribed rattan was worn round the waist, and has, scraped upon it, a charm of invulnerability in Cambodian characters. The writing has been carefully transcribed on cardboard by my nephew, to enable the lettering to be more plainly seen. Photographs of it are on the table for anyone who takes an interest in the subject, and also with a hope that through them I may obtain a translation of the words. I ought, perhaps, to mention one difficulty that might occur in translating. The Malays, who greatly trust to written spells and charms in carrying on their struggle for existence, naturally do not care that all who run may read what gives them such an advantage over their neighbours, by blessing them with invulnerability. On the contrary, after a manner frequently adopted by Orientals when dealing with written charms, as Mr. Ellis of the British Museum pointed out to me, Ah-Mat, or whoever was the astrologer, priest, monk, or sorcerer who wrote the charm for him, may possibly have employed the Cambodian character merely as a blind, while the words written may be in another language. This, however, is only a possible difficulty to be prepared for. In W. G. Maxwell's Folklore of the Malays (Journ. Straits Branch R. Asiatic Soc. No. vii., 1881, p. 24), he tells us that the Malays of the Peninsula in their own country frequently employ spells and charms written in Siamese language and character, and accordingly easily translated. The Cambodian legend, therefore, may probably be unburdened by any troublesome complication, and may, perhaps, meet with some kind orientalist member or friend of the Society who will translate it.

The charm, consisting of bony parts of animals and a piece of metal, threaded on a string and worn round the neck, was looked upon by the Siamese with the greatest amount of fear, as a "holy thing " and a "dangerous weapon." Chula, or horn and horn-like parts of animals, and magical bones, become in combination a powerful protection to their owner, while also potent for the infliction of calamities, sickness, and even death upon those he pleases to turn them against. Among Siamese, Malays, Cambodians and other races of the same origin, it is held that into or about the bones of certain animals—among them human beings—the spirits once animating them can, and often do, come to endow them with extraordinary power. With respect to the bones now before us, Mr. Oldfield Thomas, Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, and Mr. G. A. Boulinger, of the Natural History Branch of the