Ketut is relaxed and gracious with his company. He listens to the parents explain their baby's troubles. Then he digs through a small trunk on his porch and pulls out an ancient ledger filled with tiny writing in Balinese Sanskrit. He consults this book like a scholar, looking for some combination of words that will suit him, talking and laughing with the parents the whole time. Then he takes a blank page from a notebook with a picture of Kermit the Frog on it, and writes what he tells me is "a prescription" for the little girl. The child is being tormented by a minor demon, he diagnoses, in addition to the physical discomforts of teething. For the teething, he advises the parents to simply rub the baby's gums with pressed red onion juice. To appease the demon, they must make an offering of a small killed chicken and a small pig, along with a little bit of cake, mixed with special herbs which their grandmother should defin-itely have access to from her own medicine garden. (This food won't be wasted; after the of-fering ceremony, Balinese families are always allowed to eat their own donations to the gods, since the offering is more metaphysical than literal. The way the Balinese see it, God takes what belongs to God—the gesture—while man takes what belongs to man—the food itself.)
赖爷对待他的客人随和亲切。他聆听这对父母说明孩子的问题，而后他从阳台的小箱子里掏出一本古账本，里头以巴厘梵语写满小字。他像学者般参考这本册子，寻找合适的文字组合，自始至终与这对父母说说笑笑。然后他从一本上面有只克米蛙的笔记簿上取下一页，为小女娃写下"药方"。他诊断这名孩子除了长牙的身体不适外，还受到小恶魔侵扰。对于长牙问题，他建议父母以红洋葱汁涂抹女娃的牙龈。至于安抚恶魔，则必须杀鸡宰猪献祭，连同一小块糕饼——用他们的祖母从自己的草药花园采摘下来的特殊药草混合制成（这些食物不会白费；献祭仪式过后，巴厘人家总是允许食用自己献给神的供品，因为祭品的象征意义大过实质。巴厘人的看法是，神取用属于自己的东西——人的心意；人取用属于自己的东西——食物本身。）After writing the prescription, Ketut turns his back to us, fills a bowl with water, and keens a spectacular, quietly chilling mantra above it. Then Ketut blesses the baby with the water he has just infused with sacred power. Even at one year old, the child already knows how to re-ceive a holy blessing in the traditional Balinese manner. Her mother holds her, and the baby puts out her little plummy paws to receive the water, sips it once, sips it again and splashes the rest on top of her head—a perfectly executed ritual. She could not be less frightened of this toothless old man who is chanting at her. Then Ketut takes the rest of the holy water and pours it into a small plastic sandwich bag, ties the bag at the top and gives it to the family to use later. The mother carries this plastic bag of water away with her as she leaves; it looks like she has just won a goldfish at the state fair, only she forgot to take the goldfish with her.
写完药方后，赖爷转过身去，盛了一碗水，在其上方唱了一首精彩、冷森森的咒语。而后赖爷用他刚刚赋予神圣力量的水祝福女娃。即使年纪才一岁，这孩子已经知道如何接受巴厘传统的神圣祝福。母亲抱着女娃，女娃伸出圆润的手接受圣水，啜饮一口，再啜饮一口，把剩余的水洒在自己头上——完美的仪式。她丝毫不怕对她吟唱的无牙老头。随后赖爷将剩余的圣水倒入小塑胶袋内，扎起来，给这家人之后使用。母亲拿着盛在塑胶袋里的水离去，好似刚刚在嘉年华会赢得一条金鱼，却忘了带走金鱼一般。Ketut Liyer has given this family about forty minutes of his undivided attention, for the fee of about twenty-five cents. If they hadn't any money at all, he would have done the same; this is his duty as a healer. He may turn nobody away, or the gods will remove his talent for healing. Ketut gets about ten visitors a day like this, Balinese who need his help or advice on some holy or medical matter. On highly auspicious days, when everyone wants a special blessing, he might have over one hundred visitors.
老四赖爷给这家人四十分钟的全心关怀，收费二十五美分。他们若没有钱，他也会做同样的事情；这是身为治疗师分内之事。他不能拒绝任何人，否则神明将解除他的治疗天分。赖爷每天约有十名巴厘访客，全需要他帮忙或询问有关神明或医疗之事。在喜庆佳节，人人都想要特殊的祝福时，访客人数可能过百。