You must make the image resemble a corpse; you must make it of the length of the footstep (doubtless that of the intended victim); [ 572 ] you must pierce the part which you want to affect; if you want to kill your man, you must transfix him from the head downwards with the twig of a gomuti -palm (that is to say, with one of the black splinters used as pens by the Malays 257 ); you must wrap the image in a shroud, and read the burial service over it ; and, finally, in order to absolve yourself from blood-guiltiness, you shift the burden of your crime on to the shoulders of the Archangel Gabriel!!!
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat