Pawang — the magical knower of the forest — was the Acehnese term for the hunter who knew the secrets and powers of the forest and who had magical powers to avert misfortune. In Oost-Indisch Journael by Merac (1947), the pawang is the term the lieutenant applies to the old hunter Datoek — “one would not, at first glance, have known that one had to do with a pawang, a great tiger-hunter, who knew the forest and the animals of the forest like no other and who had magical powers to avert misfortune.”
The pawang and the ilmoe
The pawang’s magical powers — the secrets and powers of the forest — are, in Datoek’s ironical formulation, the ilmoe (the secret science). “My ‘ilmoe’, Datoek declared wittily, ‘is the keeping of the law and the commandments. Do not covet another’s wife; be honest; be just; move silently through the forest; and aim especially carefully — that is sufficient to bring down elephants and tigers.’” My ilmoe, Datoek declared wittily, is the keeping of the law and the commandments. Do not covet another’s wife; be honest; be just; move silently through the forest; and aim carefully — that is sufficient to bring down elephants and tigers. The pawang’s ilmoe — the magical powers of the pawang — are, in Datoek’s ironical demystification, simply the keeping of the law and a good shot.
The pawang eravren (pawang of the elephants)
The book’s footnote — “pawang = knower of the forest in the catching and killing of eravren [elephants], and who knew the secrets and powers of the forest” — gives the pawang’s primary association: the catcher and killer of elephants. The pawang is therefore the magical knower of the forest whose primary skill was the catching and killing of elephants — the elephant-hunter and elephant-catcher of the Acehnese forests.
Significance
The pawang is significant in Oost-Indisch Journael as the Acehnese term for the magical knower of the forest. Through Datoek’s sardonic deflation, the book reveals that the pawang’s supposed ilmoe — the secret science and magical powers — was in fact nothing more than moral conduct and marksmanship. The pawang thus becomes the book’s marker for the Acehnese hunter: the so-called magical knower of the forest whose secret knowledge was, in Datoek’s ironic formulation, simply the keeping of the law and a steady aim.
See Also
Source
Oost-Indisch Journael: Palaver om de tafel met het gat, by Merac, Toekan-Serie no. 2, ed. G. L. Tichelman (Haarlem: De Gulden Pers, 1947), chapter Jagerslatijn (Hunters’ Latin).