Po Ni is the small-pox spirit of Achehnese popular religion — an “aged dame of the spirit world” who, in the demonology recorded by Snouck Hurgronje, is held responsible for the appearance of the ulcers of small-pox (plèuëʾ). She throws “small objects like grains of corn on men’s bodies, thus giving rise to the ulcers of small-pox”, and her favour or displeasure determines the course of the disease. The whole ritual accompaniment of small-pox in Acheh is accordingly directed, not to fighting the spirit, but to conciliating her.
The offerings made to Po Ni turn on a piece of sympathetic magic, in which the form of the offerings is made to foreshadow the desired development of the pocks. “By way of an offering to this small-pox spirit, grains of keumeung or keumen are hung up, strung on a thread and alternating with the white flowers which are usually exposed for sale in the market (bungong peuncan)”. Keumeung is made by placing unhusked rice in a pot — preferably an old and cracked one (neutileuʾe) — and shaking it violently till the grains spring open and the husk separates of its own accord. “To hasten the development of the ulcers, keumeung and a pomegranate are given as kanduri to a teungku. The flowers in full bloom and the ‘burst’ rice are supposed to have the effect of causing the small-pox ulcers to come to a head and burst”. The bursting of the rice in the pot and the blooming of the flowers are thus transferred, by an obvious homeopathic logic, to the ulcers on the patient’s body.
The same logic governs the taboos observed in the sick-room. The invalid must not be needlessly exposed to view, and a curtain is stretched in front of the bed. Within earshot of the patient the small-pox ulcers are spoken of only as “flowers” (bungong kayèë), and those who wish to enquire whether they have fully developed employ the word kaya (“rich”). The answer to this question must be only “rich” or “middling” but never “poor”. Words such as “dead” (mate), “blind” (buta), “crooked” (cheutikèʾ), “much” (le) must not be uttered in the presence of the sick person. Nothing is fried in oil, for fear the pock-marks should prove black. The sick person is also wrapped in a cloth stained yellow with turmeric (kunyèt) — the colour of ripeness and maturity, intended to bring the disease to its crisis and so to its close.
Snouck notes that “besides the native therapeutics, which we do not propose to describe here, most of the remedies adopted consist in measures to secure the favour of Po Ni”. The cult of Po Ni is thus a typical example of that accommodation between Islamic orthodoxy and the older stratum of Achehnese folk-religion which is the constant theme of The Achehnese; here the teungku is called in to recite the kanduri over the keumeung and pomegranate offered to the small-pox spirit, and the religious feast becomes the channel through which the offerings of the older cult are transmitted to their supernatural recipient. A relation or fellow-lodger on a journey may likewise be commended to Po Ni’s keeping by a present of keumeung, a bunch of pisang putèh (a kind of plantain), a pomegranate and some “market flowers”, on which the leubè offers up a prayer (duʾa seulamèt) for the safety of the traveller.
See Also
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.
Po Ni is the small-pox spirit of Achehnese popular religion — an “aged dame of the spirit world” who, in the demonology recorded by Snouck Hurgronje, is held responsible for the appearance of the ulcers of small-pox (plèuëʾ). She throws “small objects like grains of corn on men’s bodies, thus giving rise to the ulcers of small-pox”, and her favour or displeasure determines the course of the disease. The whole ritual accompaniment of small-pox in Acheh is accordingly directed, not to fighting the spirit, but to conciliating her.
The offerings made to Po Ni turn on a piece of sympathetic magic, in which the form of the offerings is made to foreshadow the desired development of the pocks. “By way of an offering to this small-pox spirit, grains of keumeung or keumen are hung up, strung on a thread and alternating with the white flowers which are usually exposed for sale in the market (bungong peuncan)”. Keumeung is made by placing unhusked rice in a pot — preferably an old and cracked one (neutileuʾe) — and shaking it violently till the grains spring open and the husk separates of its own accord. “To hasten the development of the ulcers, keumeung and a pomegranate are given as kanduri to a teungku. The flowers in full bloom and the ‘burst’ rice are supposed to have the effect of causing the small-pox ulcers to come to a head and burst”. The bursting of the rice in the pot and the blooming of the flowers are thus transferred, by an obvious homeopathic logic, to the ulcers on the patient’s body.
The same logic governs the taboos observed in the sick-room. The invalid must not be needlessly exposed to view, and a curtain is stretched in front of the bed. Within earshot of the patient the small-pox ulcers are spoken of only as “flowers” (bungong kayèë), and those who wish to enquire whether they have fully developed employ the word kaya (“rich”). The answer to this question must be only “rich” or “middling” but never “poor”. Words such as “dead” (mate), “blind” (buta), “crooked” (cheutikèʾ), “much” (le) must not be uttered in the presence of the sick person. Nothing is fried in oil, for fear the pock-marks should prove black. The sick person is also wrapped in a cloth stained yellow with turmeric (kunyèt) — the colour of ripeness and maturity, intended to bring the disease to its crisis and so to its close.
Snouck notes that “besides the native therapeutics, which we do not propose to describe here, most of the remedies adopted consist in measures to secure the favour of Po Ni”. The cult of Po Ni is thus a typical example of that accommodation between Islamic orthodoxy and the older stratum of Achehnese folk-religion which is the constant theme of The Achehnese; here the teungku is called in to recite the kanduri over the keumeung and pomegranate offered to the small-pox spirit, and the religious feast becomes the channel through which the offerings of the older cult are transmitted to their supernatural recipient. A relation or fellow-lodger on a journey may likewise be commended to Po Ni’s keeping by a present of keumeung, a bunch of pisang putèh (a kind of plantain), a pomegranate and some “market flowers”, on which the leubè offers up a prayer (duʾa seulamèt) for the safety of the traveller.
See Also
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.