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SANITATION IN SINGAPORE.

The natives around Singapore have many strange superstitions, and are firm .in their belief in spirits. The': way in which their Bomo, or medicine man, raises these spirits is most curious. Tho'.Bomo, naked to the waist, and generally thin as a skeleton, lies prostrate on the floor,. surrounded by about twenty women, and by his side is . an. extraordinary . straw erection, something like a bird-cage with a fantastic roof, on every point and pinnacle of which little candles burn.' This is for the spirit to enter. .The Bomo then keeps up a low . monotonous prayer,, straining every norvo in supplication, and stops at intervals to throw beans . about. Then,, when " the spirit has arrived," he prays that he and tne people in the village may be prevented from having every diseaso that he can enumerate, the women around him suggesting any that he may forget.' /'■ '

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19081022.2.9.4

Bibliographic details

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 334, 22 October 1908, Page 3

Word Count
148

SANITATION IN SINGAPORE. Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 334, 22 October 1908, Page 3

SANITATION IN SINGAPORE. Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 334, 22 October 1908, Page 3