Note 272 — Chapter V · Magic Rites connected with the Several Departments of Nature (continued 2)
Reading edition
No other metals, so far as I am aware, are worked to any extent in the Peninsula, yet there is the clearest possible evidence of animistic ideas about Iron. Thus for the Sacred Lump of Iron which forms part of the regalia of more than one of the petty Sultans in the Peninsula, the Malays entertain the most extraordinary reverence, not unmingled with superstitious terror.272 It is upon this “Lump of Iron,” when placed in water, that the most solemn and binding oath known to those who make use of it is sworn; and it is to this “Lump of Iron” that the Malay wizard refers when he recites his category of the most terrible denunciations that Malay magic has been able to invent.273