In the meantime a group of half-naked
men sitting on a mat went into a trance. They were the assistants
of the Barong against Rangda. A priest consecrated some water
by dipping the Barong's beard into it, and sprinkled the men,
who shook all over as if in an epileptic fit. With their eyes
glued on the Rangda, they got up, drawing their krisses, advancing
like fidgety automatons towards the witch, who awaited them ready
with her white cloth, her weapon, ready in her raised band. Suddenly
she ran after them, but just then one of the priests on watch
noticed something unusual in her behavior and passed the word
that she was out of control. She was caught by a group of strong
men and led away, but not before she had put a spell on the entranced
men by joining the thumbs of her outstretched hands and yelling
a curse.
By the spell, the krisses in the hands of the men turned against
them, but the magic of the Barong hardened their flesh so that,
although they pushed the sharp points of the daggers with all
their might against their naked chests, they were not even hurt.
This was the explanation the Balinese gave of the strange exhibition
and it seemed inconceivable that they were faking such was the
earnest force with which they seemed to try to stab themselves.
Some leaped wildly or rolled in the dust, pressing the krisses
against their breasts and crying like children, tear streaming
from their eyes. Most showed dark marks where the point of the
dagger bruised the skin without cutting it, but blood began to
flow from the breast of one, the signal for the watchmen to disarm
him by force.
It is said that only by a complete trance can the dance be performed
with impunity; otherwise a man will wound himself or hurt others.
They were closely watched and if one of them gave signs of returning
to consciousness he was quickly and violently disarmed. Possessed
as they are, they have supernatural strength and it takes many
men to hold them down. Even after the kris has been wrenched away
they continue to dance with a blank stare and with the right fist
still clenched as if grasping the kris handle. To take the men
out of the trance, they were led, one by one, to where the Barong
stood; someone sucked the bleeding chest of the wounded man and
stuck a red flower in the cut. The pemangku wiped the face of
each man with the beard of the Barong dipped in holy water, and
gradually the hysterical men came out of the trance, dazed, simply
walking away as if they did not know what had happened to them.
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