A skeptic tells of an encounter
with a believer
I don't believe in spiritulism, fotune
tellers and magic so I was skeptical when Jilly told me that a bomah had put a
spell on her. A bomah is the Malaysian term for a witch doctor. At the time I
was living in MIri in Sarawak, East Malayasia and I knew the Dayaks, the
Indigenous tribal people still consulted bomahs but Jilly was a UK
Jilly was frankly edgy. Finally she
broke down. In tears she told me the bomah threatened to curse her unless she
gave him ten thousand rinngits. I couldn’t believe that she could
take his threat seriously. “Tell him that you’ll curse him back,” I joked.
Not long after Jill returned toEngland
Not long after Jill returned to
Writing
is a way to reflect on experience
When I constructed Roger, one of the
more unpleasant characters in The
White Amah I was having a dig
at my own flippant attitude to unfamiliar ideas because I still feel guilty about the unsympathetic way I responded to Jilly.
In my story Roger is having an affair with his amah, Rubiah. Hoping to become his wife, she has gone to a bomah for help. Her plan miscarries when the bomah demands more money and threatens to put a spell on her if she doesn't pay up.
Roger is as skeptical as me. "Tell her you'll curse him back," he says. He then proceeds to mocks her beliefs calling her “an ignorant little jungle bunny”. I warned you he was an unpleasant character, didn’t I?
In my story Roger is having an affair with his amah, Rubiah. Hoping to become his wife, she has gone to a bomah for help. Her plan miscarries when the bomah demands more money and threatens to put a spell on her if she doesn't pay up.
Roger is as skeptical as me. "Tell her you'll curse him back," he says. He then proceeds to mocks her beliefs calling her “an ignorant little jungle bunny”. I warned you he was an unpleasant character, didn’t I?
As to whether spirits really exist the jury is out because as someone famously said--
"There’s more in heaven and earth than we can ever know."
