Malay Magic (1st ed) (1900)

As recently as the end of the 19th century, magic and superstition were a regular part of daily life among the Malays in the region. As the cultural changes brought about by European colonialism were not yet widespread, the traditional beliefs and practices of the Malays were left largely intact.

This aspect of Malay life is documented in the book, Malay Magic: Being an Introduction to the Folklore and Popular Religion of the Malay Peninsula, by the Englishman Walter William Skeat. When it was first published, Malay Magic was considered a pioneering work on Malay beliefs and practices relating to age-old superstition and magic.

Born in Cambridge, England, in 1866, Skeat enrolled at Christ’s College in 1885 to read classics. He graduated in 1888, and joined the Selangor Civil Service, where he spent six years, first as Assistant District Officer at the Import and Export Office at Klang in 1891, then at Kuala Langat in 1893. He was subsequently appointed as District Officer at Klang, Ulu Langat and finally at Kuala Langat in 1896.

Most of Skeat’s ethnographic work, which formed the basis of Malay Magic, was done during his time at Kuala Langat. He wrote regularly on Malay and aborigine culture for the Selangor Journal, of which he was joint founder and editor. In 1897, Skeat compiled his notes and Selangor Journal articles to form the manuscript of Malay Magic and returned to England, where he approached the publishing house Macmillan. In a hurry to get back to Malaya, Skeat left his manuscript with his friend, Charles Otto Blagden, for revision and follow-up with Macmillan. The book was finally published in 1900.

Skeat’s interest in the Malays and the Malayan aborigines was the subject of his second book: Pagan Race of the Malayan Peninsula (1906). He also published an account of his 1899–1900 expedition in Reminiscences of the Cambridge University Expedition to the North-Eastern Malay States, 1899–1900 in volume 26, issue 4 of the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Studies. Thereafter, his health failed, and he was unable to return to Malaya again.
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In general good order. Pages clean and unmarked. Illustrations clean and bright