Note 181 — Chapter V · Magic Rites connected with the Several Departments of Nature

“No prayers are offered up, but all food must be eaten dry, i.e. without sumbul,181 or stewed fish, or vegetables. Salt must not be pounded fine; if it is eaten fine, the camphor when found will be in fine grains; but if eaten coarse the grains of camphor will be large. In rainy weather the cry of the bisan is not heard. At certain seasons regular parties of Jakuns, and sometimes Malays, go into the jungle to search for camphor, and they remain there as long as three or four months at a time. Not only must the men who go into the jungle to search for the camphor speak the ‘Pantang Kapur,’ but also the men and women left at home in the Kampongs.