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18 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
to
lead the Malays to think that absolute invulnerability was conferred on
one who carried several of them bound so closely to the skin that in
some cases they even penetrated the flesh. The typical mestica is
described as a hard stone, brilliant but seldom transparent ; it is
found in the flesh or fat, in the heart or on the legs of animals, and
also sometimes in plants.31
Rumphius declares that many extraordinary cases were related of warriors who could not be injured by any weapons until the mestica had
been cut out of their flesh, wherein it had become embedded. Indeed, he
states that Dutch officers of proved veracity had confidently asserted
that they had encountered such men among their native antagonists.
While Rumphius feels himself therefore forced to admit the truth of the
invulnerability of these men, he hastens to add that such powers could
not be inherent in any piece of stone, but must owe their origin to
diabolical agencies." The fact that the Mohammedans had their mesticas blessed
by the priests of their faith, and burned incense beneath them on
Fridays, the Mohammedan equivalent of the Christian Sunday, did not
probably shake the belief of Rumphius that the Devil had something to
do with these substances.
The
medicine-men of the Kainuga Indians of Paraguay mutter incantations
over the bodies of the sick, and then, after many struggles and
contortions, proceed to extract stones from their mouths, claiming that
they have taken the patient's disease into their own bodies, the stones
being regarded as the seat of the ailment. In one case, the
medicine-man produced five of these stones before the patient admitted
that his pain was relieved. After the cure was
**
Rumphius, " D'Ambonisehe Rariteitskamer," Amsterdam, 1741, p. 291.
"Rumphius, "D'Ambonisehe Rariteitskamer," Amsterdam, 1741, pp. 291, 292.
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