Note 183 — Chapter VI · Magic Rites as affecting the Life of Man (continued 3)
Reading edition
The phrase in the original is Halûan sûsun. The former word means the bows of a boat, the latter is applied to things fitted together, as sirih leaves are fitted when one leaf is laid on the top of another. The use of this phrase is very curious, and I believe it to convey the sense which I have rendered. I have never heard the phrase in any other connection, nor have I met with it except in this incantation. [Should not the correct reading be halun (= alun) susun, which is a fairly common Malay phrase used of the waves “crowding” one upon another on a stormy day?—W.S.] ↑