Page "Gerald Gardner (Wiccan)" Paragraph 13

Arriving in Singapore, he initially planned to return to Ceylon, but was offered a job working as an assistant on a rubber plantation in Perak, northern Malaya, and decided to take it, working for the Borneo Company.

Arriving in the area, he decided to supplement this income by purchasing his own estate, Bukit Katho, on which he could grow rubber ; initially sized at 450 acres, Gardner purchased various pieces of adjacent land until it covered 600 acres.

Here, Gardner made friends with an American man known as Cornwall, who had converted to Islam and married a local Malay woman.

Through Cornwall, Gardner was introduced to many locals, whom he soon befriended, including members of the Senoi and Malay peoples.

Cornwall invited Gardner to make the Shahada, the Muslim confession of faith, which he did ; it allowed him to gain the trust of locals, although would he would never become a practicing Muslim.

Cornwall was however an unorthodox Muslim, and his interest in local peoples included their magical and spiritual beliefs, to which he also introduced Gardner, who took a particular interest in the kris, a ritual knife with magical uses.