we find the rakshasa of Hindu romances and the jin and ʿefrit of the Arabian
Nights in the company of a lot of Indo-Chinese spirits and goblins, who have not
come from the West like the others:—
“I explained to Mr. M. clearly the names of all the sheitan believed in by
Chinese and Malays; all ignorance and folly which have come down from their
ancestors in former times, and exist up to the present day, much more than I
could relate or explain. I merely enumerated the varieties, such as hantu,
sheitan,^24 polong,^25 pontianak, penanggalan,^26 jin,^27 pelisit,^28 mambang,^29
hantu pemburu,^30 hantu rimba, jadi-jadian,^31 hantu bengkus,^32 bota, gargasi,
raksaksa,^33 nenek kabayan,^34 himbasan,^35 sawan,^36 hantu mati di-bunoh,^37
bajang,^38 katagoran, sempak-kan, puput-kan,^39 ʿefrit,^40 jemalang,^41 terkena,^42
ubat guna.^43 Besides all these there are ever so many ilmu-ilmu (branches of
secret knowledge), all of which I could not remember, such as gagak,^44
penundok,^45 pengasih,^46 kebal,^47 kasaktian,^48 tuju,^49 ʿalimun,^50 pendĕras,^51
perahuh,^52 chucha,^53 pelali,^54 perangsang,^55 and a quantity of others. All these
are firmly believed in by the people. Some of these arts have their professors
(guru) from whom instruction may be got. Others have their doctors, who can
say this is such and such a disease, and this is the remedy for it, and besides
these there are all those arts which are able to cause evil to man. When Mr. M.
heard all this he was astonished and wondered, and said, ‘Do you know the
stories of all these?’ I replied, ‘If I were to explain all about them it would fill a
large book, and the contents of the book would be all ignorance and nonsense
without any worth, and sensible persons would not like to listen to it, they would
merely laugh at it.’”^56
To the foregoing the following list of spirits and ghosts may be added.
The Hantu Kubor (Grave Demons) are the spirits of the dead, who are believed
to prey upon the living whenever they get an opportunity. With them may be
classed the “Hantu orang mati di-bunoh,” or “spirits of murdered men.”
“The Hantu Ribut is the storm-fiend that howls in the blast and revels in the
whirlwind.”^57
The Hantu Ayer and Hantu Laut are Water and Sea-spirits, and the Hantu
Bandan is the Spirit of the Waterfall, which “may often be seen lying prone on