Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait391903roya).pdf/88

 of honour. I was then invited to handle and examine them, and the name and use of each were told me without any fresh indication of unwillingness. This is a list of them.

i. Batu bintang, or Star-stone; a small transparent stone rounded by the action of water till it was almost spherical, with a rather rough surface. The Manang looked upon it as his badge of authority, and told the following story of the way he became possessed of it. Many years ago, in the interval be- tween harvest and the next seed-time, he was working as a cooly in Upper Sarawak. There he had a dream in which he was visited by the being whom he looks upon as his guardian-spirit. As in all cases when this spirit has had any communication to make to him, it appeared in the form of a tortoise. It told him that he must forthwith put himself under instruction in order to be qualified for the office of a Manang: and that if he neglected this command all the spirits would be angry, and death or madness would be the penalty. When he awoke he found the Batu bintang by his side, and had no doubt it was the gift of the spirit. Accordingly he did as he was bidden without loss of time. He acquired the professional knowledge and the stock in trade which were necessary, and was at last duly initiated with all the proper rites and ceremonies.

ii. Batu krat ikan sembilan, or The petrified section of the Sembilan fish. This was a curious object which I could not quite make out. It was oblong in shape, about two inches long, one inch broad, and half au inch thick in the middle, but getting suddenly thinner towards the two edges till it became not more than $1⁄16$ of an inch. The thick part was hollow, having a large oval-shaped perforation going through it. It resembled a sec- tion from the middle of a large winged seed, but heavy for its size, and feeling like stone, I could not of course test this by cutting or scraping. When used it is soaked for a time in water; the water is then given to the sick man to drink, or is rubbed gently upon the part of his body which is affected.

iii. Batu lintar, or Thunder-bolt; a small dark-coloured stone, about an inch and a half long, and a quarter of an inch thick at the base, tapering to a sixteenth of an inch at the point; curved and rather like a very small rhinoceros horn, and highly polished. It was probably the same kind of stone as that of