measures are taken to compel the owner to recall it. It now only remains to
describe the means employed by the Malays to secure one of these familiar
spirits, which can be guaranteed to cause the greatest possible annoyance to your
enemy, with the least possible trouble on your own part.
Receipt for securing a Pĕlĕsit
“Go to the graveyard at night and dig up the body of a first-born child whose
mother was also first-born, and which has been dead less than forty days. On
digging it up, carry it out to an ant-hill in the open ground, and there dandle it
(di-timang). After a little while, when the child shrieks and lolls its tongue out
(tĕrjĕlir lidah-nya), bite off its tongue and carry it home. Then obtain a cocoa-
nut shell from a solitary ‘green’ cocoa-nut palm (niyor hijau), and carry it to a
place where Three Roads Meet, light a fire and heat the shell till oil exudes, dip
the child’s tongue in the oil, and bury it in the heart of the three cross roads (hati
sempang tiga). Leave it untouched for three nights, then dig it up and you will
find that it has turned into a Pĕlĕsit.”^14