Kadayan's mystique
The most well known mystic of Kadayan is black magic called pantak.
The word pantak is perhaps exclusively Kadayan's. I have not found it in any dictionary.Howerver if I were to make it out, and by the sound of it, word pantak probably derived from a Malay word hentak, a sharp and abrupt act.
Why pantak?
Deploying a pantak is a serious matter; the ultimate aim is to kill the enemy. The term enemy may mean a few things; first it's about the apparent meaning second, and the silent meaning- any feeling of animosity sparked up from a simple misunderstanding like missing a joke to anything.
The former is guessable why pantak was used, while the later is less so.
In both scenarios, it is difficult to prove whether a person dies because of pantak. No body would like to claim such atrocity. A good indicator perhaps was, if someone died mysteriously in a sleep where there was no apparent reason of ill health or when the person was brought to hospital but the medical doctor could not give a convincing reason to the cause of the death.
Charging pantak expert in the court of justice for murder is just as difficult; I haven't heard any either since criminal law term doesn't fit to the description, there was no actual physical harm-actus reas done by the doer and I don't see any good reason to charge a person based on mens rea alone -intention.
The other way of describing why pantak became an integral part of Kadayan's life in those days was that, pantak a kin to sporting activity, a way of amusement and excitement of the day, after all there was no Manchester United football team to watch nor Tiger Wood or Formula One on the screen.
Pantak might also be a way of showing power over one another?
How pantak created?
A person must have an interest on the subject; he or she underwent vigorous training from the elders. Its a risky affair too, there was always a kind of competition among the young and the old in the field. Secondly, a person-practised pantak wasn't necessarily because of interest but because he or she was the chosen one to inherit the art, if he or she refused to carry it out he or she would have to bear a heavy price for disobeying the ancestor's wish.
Training took many shapes and sizes depending on the guru.
The most common training was called bata'ak- hibernating in seven peninsulas or mountains for months or even years, a ritual of worshipping jinn. That jinni later became an obedient friend. It received instructions from his master and would remain loyal so long as it was properly looked after. Any breach of trust between the master and the jinn would mean revenge; the family and the relatives of the master would be the first target.
Having learnt the theoretical and the spiritual aspects, the pantak person must always be readied with collection of items such as spears cleansed every Friday night with lemon juice and tangas- put above the incensed fire with special prayer, special treated needles, eggs, lemon grasses and red cloth.
In another version, two reasons why pantak had to be carried out, as general rule pantak was only used in response to someone who treated the person as enemy. This group of people would not start or do any harm to anybody unless he or she was provoked, challenged or threatened.
Likewise, as mentioned earlier pantak had to be carried out because that jinni needed food and to be fed with human as sacrifice at least once a year.
Pantak expert awaited response or instinct before acted. Once signal was received he or she would strike by the middle of the night. The spears would fly like warheads looking for the enemy. If spears didn't work because the area was protected or secluded, needles were used instead, because needles could penetrate even into the tinniest hole. The eggs normally acted as torch-flying fire and that lemon grasses were wings. The red cloth was jinn's underwear or cloth symbolised blood.
The person who exercised pantak would just have to imagine where the spears or needles would strike, most commonly it meant to land precisely at the heart of the victim.
Identification
In the early days, the person identified to have possessed pantak for a male, normally had long moustache curled upward with red eyes or perhaps long hairs. A female had red eyes and untidy hair done, she didn't talk and mingle much with the rest of community, she preferred to live alone but like to poke out in crowded places as if she was checking after something.
A pantak person often liked to visit sick people or pregnant women. Sometimes he or she could be seen as double or appeared in various places at the same time.
Practising pantak persons always skinny and didn't look too fit or healthy.
When pantak was on going a sound of strange bird at night could be heard- jinni's pet, known to Kadayan as tak tadau.
Is pantak still practised by Kadayan today? Some say yes but I wouldn't dare to confirm until I meet someone with red eyes with curled moustache and hear the sound of tak tadau at night.
(Read Amde's biography HERE)
Footnote:
1It isn't pantak it's just a picture of squirrel taken from my mother's kitchen in Sipitang
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