successful which accounts for its rarity.
Nyong-nyong may be applied in many ways, one way is to have it ingested by the unsuspecting subject. Several drops in the subject’s drink is enough to cause him to reject the approaches of other women. The affect of the oil may only last for several weeks or months, during which time the enchanter would repeat the process to maintain the status quo.
In general, the many love oils of the Dayaks may be applied for influencing another using the following rite:
Take some dirt or soil from the subject’s footprints and wrap it up in a white piece of cloth, after which several drops of a love oil should be applied on the bundle. After this is done, the bundle of soil should be placed beneath one’s pillow. The subject should then be visualized in an appropriate manner while calling out his or her name at least three times. Simultaneously, the pillow should be turned repeatedly and beaten.
Although difficult to acquire, Nyong-nyong oil is available to those that search for it. Minyak Nyong-nyong may be found sold by some perfume dealers, peddlers, and commercial psychics although the genuineness of the oil offered is questionable.
Minyak Air-Mata Duyung
This oil is the eye-secretion, or tears of the sea mammal, called, dugong (sea-cow) or “duyung” among the locals here in Indonesia. The creature sheds tears for lubrication of the eyes. The duyung is long believed to be the mythological mermaid and related to the Greek “sirens”; however, the latter is often referred to by Indonesian folklorists as “putri-duyung” and is quite different from the “ikan-duyung” or the dugong. Its scientific classification is