Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T05:27:57.970Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - The Pawang’s ‘Wonderful Nose’ for Ore

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 June 2020

Teren Sevea
Affiliation:
Harvard Divinity School
Get access

Summary

In A Sketch of Malayan Mining, published in 1928, Geologist to the Federated Malay States John B. Scrivenor reminisced about the ‘heyday of the pawang’. During those ‘palmy days’ of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was considered ‘fatal to not consult the pawang’ before mining for tin or gold. The ubiquitous pawangs worked as prospectors and were known to be adept at locating, excavating and smelting tin ore. They were also mediums for the spirits that guarded tin and gold deposits.

Type
Chapter
Information
Miracles and Material Life
Rice, Ore, Traps and Guns in Islamic Malaya
, pp. 111 - 151
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×