Some Malay and aboriginal charms and methods of measuring weapons
P.D.R. Williams-Hunt published this fieldwork record in 1952, documenting divination charms and physical measurement techniques used by Aboriginal and Malay communities across Peninsular Malaysia when assessing the suitability of weapons. Drawing on recordings made between 1949 and 1951 among the Jakun, Semai Semelai, Senoi (Sakai), and Malay informants, the article argues that these oral traditions—many of which are recognisably of Malay origin in their Aboriginal forms—were in active process of being lost and required urgent documentation.
Summary
The article addresses a problem of cultural transmission: the omen systems attached to the act of measuring weapons (keris, blowpipes, darts, tumbok lada, parang) were sustained through oral practice and were particularly vulnerable among Aboriginal groups whose material culture was rapidly being replaced by Malay patterns. Williams-Hunt’s central observation is that although the Aboriginal charms are “obviously of Malay origin,” they had not been recorded before, and the distortions introduced through Aboriginal pronunciation and adaptation represent a distinct ethnographic layer worth preserving (p. 56).
The methods documented fall into several broad categories. The most common is the thumb-measuring technique, in which the width of the thumb (or alternating thumb widths) is laid along the blade while a sequence of words is recited; the word at which the blade terminates determines the omen, ranging from “very good” to “very bad.” A second category involves the mengkuang (pandanus) strip method, in which a measured strip is folded, cut into segments, and laid in a cross-and-longitudinal pattern whose terminal orientation signals suitability. A third category comprises purely physical measurement rules—wrist depression, finger width, arm length, or trial-shooting of darts—without any verbal formula. Williams-Hunt records the specific words, their assigned valences, and the physical procedures as pronounced by named informants, spelling them phonetically even where they have distorted their Malay etyma (pp. 56–61).
The article also captures the social and ritual boundaries surrounding these practices. The Dato of Ulu Degong refused to apply the mengkuang charm to a modern car spring spear issued by the Department of the Adviser on Aborigines, declaring it “an insult to the charm” to test such a weapon (p. 60). Similarly, the Panang of Ulu Beherang employed the mengkuang method but would not divulge the accompanying words, indicating that even within a single community, the verbal component could be treated as restricted knowledge while the physical technique remained open.
Key Findings
- The Jakun of the Maran area (Pekan District, Pahang) used a thumb-measuring sequence for keris comprising the words kerakup, kanek, kanek, tumbok, atas, batu, rimeau, nanti, kampong, gajab, nanti, perabu, with valences ranging from “very bad” (kerakup: owner prone to words rather than actions) to “very good” (rimeau: owner always on the alert) (p. 56).
- The Semai Semelai of Sg. Lui (Negri Sembilan) measured blowpipe darts by placing the butt in the wrist depression (between the scaphoid and pisiform tubercles) and extending the shaft along the second finger, adding the width of the other hand’s fingers; the dart butt itself should equal two finger-widths (p. 57).
- The Lowland Semai of Ulu Degong (Perak) determined dart length by trial-shooting: a dart initially made from elbow to a crease on the side of the hand was shot vertically through a new blowpipe, and its length trimmed until it flew straight up and landed point-first in the ground; the resulting measurement was then standardised for all future darts (p. 58).
- The mengkuang strip method, used by both Lowland and Hill Semai, involved measuring the blade, folding the strip in two, cutting it into segments the width of the blade’s centre, and laying them alternately cross and longitudinal (I-I-I pattern); finishing on a cross section rendered the weapon unsuitable (pp. 59–60).
- A Javanese informant from Pachitan (Che Mohamed Yusoff bin Haji Ibrahim) provided a numerical classification system for keris based on the mengkuang count: 2, 8, 10, 12 for fighting men; 1, 7, 9, 11, 15, 17, 19, 23 for house protection; 26–29, 4, 6, 14, 18, 20, 22, 24, 30 for personal use; and 3, 5, 13, 16, 21, 25 as dangerous weapons that may turn against the owner (p. 61).
- The Hill Semai of Bukit Betong (Lipis, Pahang) measured blowpipes at five arms’ length (elbow to fingertip), occasionally six; a second informant (Rajah Tom, Ulu Jelai Kechil) measured the inner tube only in nipple-widths, requiring the top end to fall over the sternum or between the sternum and left nipple (p. 59).
Conclusion
Williams-Hunt’s definitive takeaway is one of urgency: the charms and measurement methods recorded here represent a type of ethnographic data with “considerable scope” for further documentation, and “steps should be taken to put them on record before they are lost” (p. 56). The article functions less as an analytical study than as a rescue record, capturing a layer of oral tradition that was already fragmenting under the pressure of cultural assimilation, particularly among Aboriginal groups whose distinctive material culture was being replaced by Malay patterns within a single generation.
Context
- The data derive from Williams-Hunt’s own fieldwork conducted in 1949–1951 across Pahang, Negri Sembilan, and Perak, supplemented by Malay informants from Parit Buntar (Perak) and Pachitan (Java); no archival collections were consulted, and the article is entirely a primary field record.
- Historiographically, the piece contributes to the small body of mid-century MBRAS publications documenting Aboriginal material culture and belief systems at a moment of rapid change, and it implicitly records the transmission pathway by which Malay-origin divination practices were adapted (and distorted) into Aboriginal contexts.