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Incantations

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Incantations

Incantations

Incantations constitute a significant category of ritual speech in the Malay Peninsula, functioning as the verbal core of healing, divination, and ceremonial performance. The archival record from the Society’s journal preserves two distinct accounts from the early twentieth century, each documenting the use of fixed or semi-fixed formulaic utterances within specific ritual contexts: one in the context of a traditional stage performance in the interior of Borneo, and the other in a healing ceremony in Kelantan. Together, these records reveal that incantatory practice was not a uniform phenomenon but varied considerably in structure, purpose, and religious framing across regions and communities, while sharing certain common features such as the invocation of spirits, the use of ritual objects, and the performance of the utterance by a designated specialist.

The Pawang Ma’yang: Incantation in Bornean Performance

W. B. Clarke’s 1925 note provides a concise but detailed account of the incantation and sacrifice performed by a Pawang Ma’yang at the opening of a traditional performance in the interior of Borneo [1]. The Pawang—a ritual specialist whose title denotes a person skilled in spiritual matters—sits cross-legged between the roof-tree pillars of a newly erected stage, facing the setting sun at approximately 6:30 p.m. on the day of the first performance [1]. Before him is arranged a tray of ritual items: a single egg, rice in both dry and wet forms, turmeric, a candle, four quids of betel, an ember, and a minimum monetary offering of thirty cents [1].

The incantation itself is described as a fixed formula. It invokes earth spirits, identifies the source of illness, and calls upon a black spirit identified with the eastern star [1]. The utterance closes with the Islamic formula La ilaha illa’llah, a detail that Clarke records without further commentary but which signals the syncretic character of the ritual, in which pre-Islamic spiritual references coexist with an Islamic invocation [1].

The incantation is not an isolated verbal act but is embedded within a sequence of sacrificial actions that follow immediately upon its completion. The Pawang mixes rice from each saucer, takes the egg and a quid of betel, and buries them at the foot of the western pillar; he casts rice into the air, scatters rice around the stage, lights the candle between his feet, hammers rice into the ground, places betel on the drums, orders the instruments to be sounded, and distributes the monetary offering [1]. The entire procedure is contingent: if the site proves inauspicious, a fresh one is selected and the performance is repeated in its entirety [1]. This conditional structure implies that the incantation is understood not merely as a formula to be recited but as an operative utterance whose efficacy is tested by the response of the spirits invoked.

The Bomor in Kelantan: Incantation in Healing

F. F. Laidlaw’s 1923 note, based on a first-hand account from October 1899 in Kota Bahru, Kelantan, documents a markedly different incantatory context: a main putri healing ceremony for a young man suffering from chronic rheumatism [2]. The ceremony was attended by Laidlaw, who was guided to the site by two armed young men carrying wickerwork shields, a detail that underscores the secrecy surrounding the event [2].

The central figure is a bomor—a medium or spirit-channel—whose incantations are delivered in a falsetto voice [2]. Unlike the fixed formula recorded by Clarke, Laidlaw’s account does not transcribe the words of the incantation but describes its performative qualities: the bomor throws incense smoke about the room and enters violent head-shaking frenzies, accompanied by the sound of a three-stringed Malay viol and the rhythmic beating of metal pots by onlookers [2]. The incantation here functions as a vehicle for spirit possession rather than as a standalone formula; the verbal utterance is inseparable from the physical and auditory environment in which it is performed.

The seance is resolved when the bomor identifies the cause of the illness: the sick man’s mother had driven out a dove without feeding it, an act that removed a hindrance to the cure [2]. This narrative resolution is characteristic of the diagnostic logic of such ceremonies, in which the incantation serves not only to invoke spirits but to elicit specific information about the origin of affliction. Laidlaw further notes that the bomor subsequently demonstrated his powers by correctly predicting the outcome of a bull fight, an episode that Laidlaw records as evidence of the medium’s reputed abilities [2].

Religious and Social Context

Both records illuminate the tension between incantatory practice and orthodox Islamic teaching. Laidlaw explicitly states that the ceremony was conducted under secrecy because the ruling Sultan and religious authorities regarded such practices as contrary to Islamic doctrine [2]. Clarke’s record, by contrast, does not mention any prohibition, though the inclusion of the formula La ilaha illa’llah at the close of the Pawang’s incantation may itself represent an accommodation to Islamic sensibilities [1]. The Kelantan case thus presents a more acute example of the social risk attached to incantatory practice, in which the performance of such rituals carried the potential for censure by both secular and religious authorities.

The two accounts also differ in their social setting. Clarke’s Pawang operates in the context of a public performance, where the incantation is a preliminary rite that legitimises the stage and its instruments [1]. Laidlaw’s bomor operates in a private, concealed setting, where the incantation is directed at a specific individual’s affliction and the outcome is of personal rather than communal concern [2]. This contrast suggests that the social visibility of incantatory practice was a variable factor, with public performance contexts permitting a degree of openness that private healing contexts did not.

Research and Documentation

The Society’s literature on incantations in the Malay Peninsula and Borneo remains, on the evidence of these two records, limited in scope and characterised by a reliance on short observational notes rather than extended analytical studies. Clarke’s 1925 contribution is a single-page notice that records procedure and formula without offering interpretive commentary; its value lies in the specificity of the ritual inventory and the sequence of actions [1]. Laidlaw’s 1923 note, spanning two pages, provides a more narrative account but similarly refrains from broader ethnographic analysis, presenting the ceremony as a witnessed event of personal interest [2].

The two notes are separated by only two years yet reflect different methodological postures. Clarke’s account reads as a procedural record, attentive to the material objects and their spatial arrangement, while Laidlaw’s is framed as a personal narrative of attendance, emphasising the sensory and dramatic qualities of the performance [1], [2]. Neither author engages with the linguistic structure of the incantations themselves—no Malay or indigenous text is transcribed in either record—which represents a significant gap in the documentation. The absence of transcribed formulae limits the possibility of comparative linguistic analysis across the two cases and across the wider region.

The records also reveal a shift in the Society’s editorial priorities. Laidlaw’s note was prompted by Zainul Abidin bin Ahmad’s earlier article on the “Akuan or Spirit-Friends,” indicating that the incantation was documented as a subsidiary element of a broader study of spirit belief [2]. Clarke’s note, by contrast, appears to stand as an independent observation, suggesting that by 1925 the Society’s readership had developed an expectation of short, self-contained notices on specific ritual practices [1]. The cumulative effect of these two records is to establish incantation as a documented but under-theorised category in the Society’s literature, one that awaits more systematic linguistic and comparative treatment.

MBRAS Sources

References

  1. W.B. Clarke (1925). The incantation and sacrifice of the Pawang Ma’yang JMBRAS 3(3): 106.
  2. F.F. Laidlaw (1923). Notes on the invocation of Akuan JMBRAS 1(2): 376–377. Read on JSTOR