Note 281 — Chapter V · Magic Rites connected with the Several Departments of Nature (continued 2)

“We commenced at last to slide down a long reach of troubled water perceptibly out of the horizontal. The raft buried itself under the surface, leaving dry only our little stage, and the whole fabric shook and trembled as if it were about to break up. Yelling ‘Sambut, sambut’ (‘Receive, receive’) to the spirits of the stream, whom Kulup Mohamed was propitiating with small offerings of rice and leaves, the panting boatmen continued their struggles until we shot out once more into smooth deep water, and all danger was over.”281