is, almost word for word, equally true of the Bee-Trees in Selangor.^158
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.”