“O ye mosquito-fry at the river’s mouth
When yet a great way off, ye are sharp of eye,
When near, ye are hard of heart.
When the rock in the ground opens of itself
Then (and then only) be emboldened the hearts of my foes and opponents!
When the corpse in the ground opens of itself
Then (and then only) be emboldened the hearts of my foes and opponents!
May your heart be softened when you behold me,
By grace of this prayer that I use, called Silam Bayu.”The “mosquito-fry at the river’s mouth” in the first line is no doubt intended as
an allusion to the Langsuir who frequent the fishing-stakes.
The Pontianak (or Mati-anak), as has already been said, is the stillborn child of
the Langsuir, and its embodiment is like that of its mother, a kind of night-owl.^9
Curiously enough, it appears to be the only one of these spirits which rises to the
dignity of being addressed as a “Jin” or “Genie,” as appears from the charms
which are used for laying it. Thus we find in a common charm:—
“O Pontianak the Stillborn,
May you be struck dead by the soil from the grave-mound.
Thus (we) cut the bamboo-joints, the long and the short,
To cook therein the liver of the Jin (Demon) Pontianak.
By the grace of ‘There is no god but God,’” etc.To prevent a stillborn child from becoming a Pontianak the corpse is treated in
the same way as that of the mother, i.e. a hen’s egg is put under each armpit, a
needle in the palm of each hand, and (probably) glass beads or some simple
equivalent in its mouth. The charm which is used on this occasion will be found
in the Appendix.
The Peĕnanggalan is a sort of monstrous vampire which delights in sucking the
blood of children. The story goes that once upon a time a woman was sitting, to
perform a religious penance (dudok bĕrtapa), in one of the large wooden vats
which are used by the Malays for holding the vinegar made by drawing off the
sap of the thatch-palm (mĕnyadap nipah). Quite unexpectedly a man came in,
and finding her sitting in the vat, asked her, “What are you doing there?” To this
the woman replied, “What business have you to ask?” but being very much