Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

14 BIRTH-CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS part hi
the Bajang, a familiar spirit well known to the Malays
and Blandas alike.
Charm against the Bajang.
OAI, O Bajang Langsuir,
Thou sprangest from a woman that died in childbirth ;
O Bajang Langsuir,
Thou betel-quid of Baginda Ali.
The reference to Baginda Ali is due to the super-
ficial Mohammedan influences, which have reached
the Blandas through the medium of the Malays.
Yet another charm given me by the Blandas was
intended for exorcising the Polong, a familiar demon
which is classed with the Bajang and Pelesit of
the Malays.
Charm against the Polong.
As the chisel is broken, as the adze-helve is broken,
Broken in chiselling this fallen tree-trunk,
Even so break the bones of your jaws, the strings of your tongue,
And [only] when I retire, may ye go forward.
Ye who came from the sea, return to the sea.
Ye who came from the crags, return to the crags.
Ye who came from the soil, return to the soil.
Thence is it that ye sprang, O Familiar Demons.
The Pontianak is a birth - demon of a different
kind, and this charm too I picked up from the
Blandas.
Charm against the Pontianak.
O Pontianak, still-born one.
Die and be crushed 'neath the banked-up roadway !
[Here are] bamboos, ^ both long and short,
For cooking the Pontianak, Jin, and Langsuir.
Remain, Pontianak, among the Tree-shoots !
Remain, O Jin, among the Epiphytes !
And lodge not here, O Langsuir !
Lodge not here, O Jin !
Lodge not here, O Pontianak !
' A comparison with Malay charms, a child who has died at or before birth,
from which this is evidently borrowed, The two bamboo-vessels, the long and
shows that "buloh"( = bamboo) is prob- the short, are naturally required, the
ably the correct reading. The Lang- long one for cooking the liver of the
suir is, as has been said, the ghost of mother, the shorter for that of the
a mother who has died in childbirth ; child, the "Jin" being probably inter-
the Pontianak or Matianak, that of polated. Cp. Malay Magic, p. 320.