Note 230 — Chapter V · Magic Rites connected with the Several Departments of Nature (continued 2)

“Salah nama,230 instead of limau nipis—lime (fruit). If limes are brought on to a mine, the hantu (spirits) are said to be offended; the particular feature of the fruit, which is distasteful, appears to be its acidity. It is peculiar that Chinese have this superstition concerning limes as well as Malays; not very long ago a Chinese towkay of a mine complained that the men of a rival kongsi231 had brought limes and squeezed the juice into his head race, and, furthermore, had rubbed their bodies with the juice mixed with water out of his head race, and he said they had committed a very grave offence, and asked that they might be punished for it.