Among the Oloh Ngadju of Borneo, when a sick
man is supposed to be suffering from the assaults of a ghost,
puppets of dough or rice-meal are made and thrown under the house as
substitutes for the patient, who thus rids himself of the ghost. In
certain of the western districts of Borneo if a man is taken
suddenly and violently sick, the physician, who in this part of the
world is generally an old woman, fashions a wooden image and brings
it seven times into contact with the sufferer's head, while she
says: "This image serves to take the place of the sick man;
sickness, pass over into the image." Then, with some rice, salt, and
tobacco in a little basket, the substitute is carried to the spot
where the evil spirit is supposed to have entered into the man.
There it is set upright on the ground, after the physician has
invoked the spirit as follows: "O devil, here is an image which
stands instead of the sick man. Release the soul of the sick man and
plague the image, for it is indeed prettier and better than he."
Batak magicians can conjure the demon of disease out of the
patient's body into an image made out of a banana-tree with a human
face and wrapt up in magic herbs; the image is then hurriedly
removed and thrown away or buried beyond the boundaries of the
village.
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