[9] Mr. Clifford (of Pahang), however, speaks of “that weird little white animal, the Mati-ânak, that makes beast noises round the graves of children.”—In Court and Kampong, p. 231. [↑]
[10] Cp., however, “The Pĕnangal, that horrible wraith of a woman who has died in childbirth, and who comes to torment small children in the guise of a fearful face and bust, with many feet of bloody, trailing entrails in her wake.”—Clifford, loc. cit.
“He (Mr. M.) said, ‘Very well then, tell me about the penanggalan only, I should like to hear it and to write it down in English so that Europeans may know how foolish those persons are who believe in such things.’ I then drew a picture representing a woman’s head and neck only, with the intestines hanging down. Mr. M. caused this to be engraved on wood by a Chinese, and inserted it with the story belonging to it in a publication called the Anglo-Chinese Gleaner. And I said, ‘Sir, listen to the account of the penanggalan. It was originally a woman. She used the magic arts of a devil in whom she believed, and she devoted herself to his service night and day until the period of her agreement with her teacher had expired and she was able to fly. Her head and neck were then loosened from the body, the intestines being attached to them, and hanging down in strings. The body remained where it was. Wherever the person whom it was wished to injure happened to live, thither flew the head and bowels to suck his blood, and the person whose blood was sucked was sure to die. If the blood and water which dripped from the intestines touched any person, serious illness immediately followed and his body broke out in open sores. The penanggalan likes to suck the blood of women in childbirth. For this reason it is customary at all houses where a birth occurs to hang up jeruju[11] leaves at the doors and windows, or to place thorns wherever there is any blood, lest the penanggalan should come and suck it, for the penanggalan has, it seems, a dread of thorns in which her intestines may happen to get caught. It is said that a penanggalan once came to a man’s house in the middle of the night to suck his blood, and her intestines were caught in some thorns near the hedge, and she had to remain there until daylight, when the people saw and killed her.
“‘The person who has the power of becoming a penanggalan always keeps at her house a quantity of vinegar in a jar or vessel of some kind. The use of this is to soak the intestines in, for when they issue forth from the body they immediately swell up and cannot be put back, but after being soaked in vinegar they shrink to their former size and enter the body again. There are many people who have seen the penanggalan flying along with its entrails dangling down and shining at night like fire-flies.
“‘Such is the story of the penanggalan as I have heard it from my forefathers but I do not believe it in the least. God forbid that I should.’”—Hikayat Abdullah, p. 143. [↑]
[12] “The origin of the Polong is this:—The blood of a murdered man must be taken and placed in a bottle (buli-buli, a bottle having a spherical or wide body and a long narrow neck). Then prayers are said over it, and something or other is read, I don’t know what, but it has to be learnt. After seven days of this worship, according to some people, or after twice seven days according to others, a sound is heard in the bottle like the chirping of young birds. The operator then cuts his finger and inserts it into the bottle and the Polong sucks it. The person who thus supports the Polong is called his father, or, if it happens to be a woman, she is his mother. Every day the parent feeds it with his (or her) blood. The object of doing this and the advantage to be gained from it are these:—if he entertains a feeling of anger against any one he orders the Polong to go and afflict him, that is to say, to cause him pain or sickness; or if a third person is at enmity with another he goes in secret to the person who keeps the Polong, and gives him a sum of money to send the Polong to attack the person against whom he bears ill-will. This is the use of it. The person who is tormented by the Polong, whether a virgin, or a married woman, or a man, cries out and loses consciousness of what he (or she) is doing, and tears and throws off his (or her) clothing, biting and striking the people near, blind and deaf to everything, and does all sorts of other things. Wise men are called in to prescribe remedies; some come and chant formulas over the head of the patient, others pinch his thumb and apply medicines to it. When the remedy is successful the sick person cries out, ‘Let me go, I want to go home.’ The doctor replies, ‘I will not let you go if you do not make known who it is that has sent you here, and why you have come, and who are your father and mother.’ Sometimes he (the Polong in the patient) remains silent and will not confess or give the names of his parents; sometimes he confesses, and says ‘Let me go, my father is such-a-one and lives at such-and-such a kampong, and my mother is so-and-so. The reason that I have come here is that such-a-one came to my parents and asked for their aid, and gave them a sum of money because he bore ill-will against this person’ (or whatever the reason may have been). Sometimes he makes a false statement, and mentions entirely wrong persons in order to conceal the names of his parents. As soon as the people know the name of the person who has contrived the attack and the reason, they let him go, and the sick person at once recovers his consciousness, but he is left weak and feeble. When a Polong attacks a person and will confess nothing, the person who is attacked shrieks and yells in anger, and after a day or two he dies. After death blood pours forth bubbling (ber-kopak-kopak) from the mouth, and the whole body is blue with bruises.”—Hikayat Abdullah, p. 143. Notes and Queries, S.B.R.A.S. No. 4, sec. 98, issued with No. 17 of the Journal. [↑]
[13] Mĕrepet kata kuching. [↑]
[14] Cp. Clifford, In Court and Kampong, pp. 230–244. “Pôlong and pĕlsit are but other names for bâjang, the latter is chiefly used in the state of Kĕdah, where it is considered rather chic to have a pĕlsit. A Kĕdah lady the other day, eulogising the advantage of possessing a familiar spirit (she said that, amongst other things, it gave her absolute control over her husband and the power of annoying people who offended her), thus described the method of securing this useful ally:—
“‘You go out,’ she said, ‘on the night before the full moon, and stand with your back to the moon, and your face to an ant-hill, so that your shadow falls on the ant-hill. Then you recite certain jampi (incantations), and bending forward try to embrace your shadow. If you fail, try again several times, repeating more incantations. If not successful, go the next night and make a further effort, and the night after, if necessary—three nights in all. If you cannot then catch your shadow, wait till the same day on the following month and renew the attempt. Sooner or later you will succeed, and, as you stand there in the brilliance of the moonlight, you will see that you have drawn your shadow into yourself, and your body will never again cast a shade. Go home, and in the night, whether sleeping or waking, the form of a child will appear before you and put out its tongue; that seize, and it will remain while the rest of the child disappears. In a little while the tongue will turn into something that breathes, a small animal, reptile, or insect, and when you see the creature has life put it in a bottle and the pĕlsit is yours.’