Other haunted trees (pokok bĕrhantu) are the Jawi-jawi, the Jĕlotong, and Bĕrombong, of which the following tradition will perhaps suffice:—
“All trees,” according to Malay tradition, “were planted by ‘the Prophet Elias,’[159] and are in the ‘Prophet Noah’s’ charge. In the days of King Solomon, trees could speak as well as birds and animals, and several of the trees now to be seen in the forest are really metamorphosed human beings. Such are the ‘Jĕlotong’ and the ‘Bĕrombong,’ which in the days of King Solomon were bosom friends, until there broke out between them an unfortunate quarrel, which terminated in ‘Si Jĕlotong’s’ lacing the skin of ‘Si Bĕrombong’ all over with stabs from his dagger, the effect of which stabs remains visible to this day. Si Bĕrombong, on the other hand, cursed Si Jĕlotong with his dying breath, praying that he might be turned into a tree without any buttresses to support his trunk, a prayer which was, of course, duly fulfilled. Thus originated the lack of buttresses at the base of the former tree, and the laced and slashed bark of the latter.”
The Lime-Tree
Yet another tree whose spirit is the object, as it were, of a special cult,[160] is the lime-tree, which is revered and looked up to almost as their chief patron by the theatrical players (orang ma’yong) of Penang. The invocations addressed to this spirit show that, as in most branches of magic, every part of the tree had its appropriate “alias.” Thus the root was called the “Seated Prince,” the trunk the “Standing Prince,” the bark the “Prince Stretching Himself,” the boughs the “Stabbing Prince,” the leaves the “Beckoning Prince,” the fruit the “Prince loosing an arrow.”
The Eagle-wood Tree
The following account of Eagle-wood and of the tree which produces it is quoted from the Journal of the Straits Asiatic Society:—
“In Crawfurd’s Dictionary of the Malay Archipelago[161] I find the following:—‘Agila, the Eagle-wood of commerce.—Its name in Malay and Javanese is kalambak or kalambah, but it is also known in these languages by that of gharu or kayu gharu, gharu-wood, a corruption of the Sanskrit agahru.... There can be no doubt but that the perfumed wood is the result of disease in the tree that yields it, produced by the thickening of the sap into a gum or resin.’
“This ‘Eagle-wood of commerce,’ under its more familiar name gharu, is one of the rarest and most valuable products of our Malayan jungles, and the following notes may be of interest. They are the result of inquiries amongst the Malays and Pawangs in Ulu Muar and Johol, and I am indebted to Mr. L. J. Cazalas for much assistance in obtaining the information contained in them.
“The gharu-tree is a tall forest tree, sometimes reaching the size of fifteen feet in diameter. The bark is of a silvery gray colour, and the foliage close and dense, of a dark hue. The Malay name for the tree is “tabak,” and no other may be used by the Pawang when in search of the kayu gharu.[162] Gharu, the diseased heart-wood of the tabak, is found in trees of all sizes, even in trees of one foot in diameter, thus showing that the disease attacks the tree at an early stage.
“The gharu is found in pockets, and may sometimes be discovered by the veins which run to these pockets. In other trees the veins are absent, which renders the process of searching more difficult. The tree is generally cut down and left to rot, which exposes the gharu in about six months.