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`Mau song' (diviner/consultant)

There were in 1962 at least four individuals who practised the art of
mau song. The word song means `to seek' and therefore mau song may be
described as belonging to the category of consultant, diagnostician or
diviner. The mau song only diagnoses; in that role he does not cure, either
through medicine or supernatural action. His role is conceptually distinct,
although any one person may be mau song and also dabble in other special
techniques. When he performs other roles he is called by the appropriate
name.

There is no standard technique of diagnosis or divination. Individual
diviners practise their special mode. I shall briefly mention four techniques
current in the village, and then examine in detail two of them. One diviner
uses an egg into which he looks and observes the appearance of supernatural
agents; another looks through a paper funnel and sees certain
marks which stand for different supernatural agents; the third studies
the pattern made by the contents of a broken egg and merely tells whether
the disease is fatal or not; the fourth uses a mirror and sees in it the
appearance of supernaturals in the manner of the first diviner.

The pre-eminent diviner in Baan Phraan Muan was a middle-aged
man called Wanthong. Another (Bunsi) who was prominent as cham also
practised as mau song as a secondary activity.

Wanthong, the village diviner: Wanthong's father was himself both
mau song and mau ya, who learned his arts from a man in Laos with
whom he had dealings in cattle. Wanthong began to learn the art of
mau song from his father at twenty-five, and after being an apprentice for
seven years became a fully-fledged diviner at thirty-two. Thus is the art
of divination learned, and quite young men of the village can fill the role.

Wanthong observed certain food taboos which are required by his
divining work. During his apprenticeship he had to avoid eating certain
delicacies such as khaaw pun (or kanom jeen in Central Plain language),
which is similar to Chinese noodles, and khaw tom, a sweet made of rice,
coconut milk and banana steamed in banana leaf. He also had to avoid
walking under banana and coconut trees bearing fruit, as well as under
clothes lines on which were hung women's garments. His technique of
divination is as follows.

A patient wanting to consult him must first offer him kaj. This consists
of an egg, flowers, a candle, a piece of cotton fluff, rice grain, and 1 or

1½ baht of money. This in fact constitutes his fee, but it has ritual importance
inasmuch as these are the objects used in the divination. They represent
a part of the patient, they are vehicles through which diagnosis is made,
and they are a gift to the diviner. An expression used in the village for
these ritual objects is kryang jang hai klab baan (literally: `instrument
given to return home').

The objects are placed on a plate, the candle is lit and fixed on the rim
of the plate. Wanthong first worships (waj) in Buddhist fashion three
times before the kaj. He then invites (pao sagkhe) the divine angels
(thewada) to enter the egg, for it is with their help that he will summon
the spirits (phii). Next he takes up the egg and holding it in front of the
candle says magic words (katha) to summon the spirits. According to one
version given by him, spirits of all kinds appear in the egg and he questions
each whether it is the cause of the illness. If it is not the cause, it goes
away; if it is, it answers.

Actually there is no explicit theory of what he sees or should see. For
on another occasion, while looking at the egg during a session, he said
`paddy field, house, garden, Tapubaan, chata khon raw...' The words
referred to the pictures that presented themselves to him.[5]

It is interesting to compare Wanthong's technique with that used by
another mau song. This diviner puts the ritual offerings (kaj) into a paper
funnel and looks into it. He sees certain signs which are interpreted
according to the following code:

           

Sign seen	Interpretation (cause of illness)
1. a blot of black ink	organic illness (pa yaat)
2. red spot as in fire	phii naa (spirit of the rice field)
3. a red fire with brighter flames than 2	Tapubaan (guardian of village)
4. white lines like thread	phii seua (ancestral spirit)
5. glittering points of light	phii fa (spirit of the sky)

What then the diviner concludes from looking through the ritual object
(egg or funnel) is which one of many sources of illness is at work in the
case in question. A named spirit or an astrological danger or simply an
organic disease is diagnosed as the cause.

Any one type of spirit from a large array may be the agent. If a guardian
spirit—either Tapubaan or Chao Phau Phraa Khao—or the spirit of an

ancestor (phii phau phii mae) is at work, the implication is that some
wrong has been committed by the patient, but the moral aspect of the
business of finding the cause is not the primary object here. Rather the
attention is focused on actual procedures for removing the action of the
supernatural agent. If the cause is some malevolent spirit, rather than
guardian or ancestor, then by definition it is a capricious amoral agent,
and no question of moral breach is involved. The mau song tells the
patient what offering must be given to the afflicting spirit. In most cases
offerings are standardized.

We now turn to the ritual officiants connected with the guardian spirits.
Before seeing how they conclude the proceedings initiated by the diviner,
it is appropriate to examine their mode of recruitment and relationship
to each other.