Kahyeek
Senoi · numen · Senoi traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Kahyeek is the cool liquid essence of water and, in personified form, the class of spirit-guides that rise from rivers and waterfalls. Senoi Temiar healing turns on a contrast between the dangerous heat of illness, fear and thunder and the soothing coolness of water and shade; the waterfall spirits embody that coolness. Coming to the adept in dreams like the other spirit-guides, they lend their liquid vitality to the songs of the nightlong ceremony, and the singer channels it - together with the sweeping of leaf-whisks dipped in water - onto the bodies of the sick to quench fever and calm a startled soul. Kahyeek thus names both a substance, a quality of the person, and the water-beings who bestow it.
Domains
- healing coolness
- water rivers
Powers
- brings healing coolness
Sources
- Cool liquid (kahyeek) is a vital healing essence of Senoi Temiar thought, personified in the spirit-guides of rivers and waterfalls who supply coolness in the healing ceremony.: Roseman, Marina (1990), 'Head, Heart, Odor, and Shadow', Ethos 18(3): 227-250. (secondary); Roseman, Marina (1991), Healing Sounds from the Malaysian Rainforest: Temiar Music and Medicine (Berkeley: University of California Press). (secondary)