Note 12 — Chapter V · Magic Rites connected with the Several Departments of Nature (continued 2)

Another fabulous bird which Maxwell does not mention is the Walimana (which I have more than once heard called Wilmana in Selangor). On the identity of this bird, my friend Mr. Wilkinson, of the Straits Civil Service, sends me in a letter the following note:—“The word is walimana. I have often met it in old MSS. written The ‘wali’ is the same as the second word in Rajawali. The mana is ‘human’; cp. man, manushya, etc. The walimana in old Javanese pottery is represented as a bird with a human head, a sort of harpy. In the Hikayat Sang Samba it is the steed of Maharaja Boma, and repeatedly speaks to its master.” ↑