Note 49 — Chapter VI · Magic Rites as affecting the Life of Man

To rightly understand charms of the second class, which includes Bathing and Betel-charming charms,49 we must have some idea of the Malay standard of beauty. This, I need hardly say, differs widely from that entertained by Europeans. In the case of manly beauty we should, perhaps, be able to acquiesce to some extent in the admiration which Malays express for “Brightness of Countenance” (chahia), which forms one of the chief objects of petition in almost every one of this class of charms;50 but none of our modern Ganymedes would be likely to petition for a “voice like the voice of the Prophet David”;51 or a “countenance like the countenance of the Prophet Joseph”; still less would he be likely to petition for a tongue “curled like a breaking wave,” or “a magic serpent,” or for teeth “like a herd of (black) elephants,” or for lips “like a procession of ants.”52