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Published book titled "Magic Rites
As Affecting The Life Of Man"
Birth Spirit (p.302)
We now come to the spirits which are believed to attack both women
and children at childbirth.
These are four in number: the Bajang, which generally takes the
form of a pole-cat (musang) and disturbs the household by mewing
like a great cat; the Langsuir, which takes the form of an owl
with long claws, which sits and hoots upon the roof-tree; the
Pontianak or Mati-anak, and is supposed to be a child of the
Langsuir, and the Penanggalan, which is believed to resemble a
trunkless human head with the sac of the stomach attached to it,
and which flies about seeking for an opportunity of sucking the
blood of infants.
Published book titled "Malay Magic"
(p.323)
The popular superstition about the Langsuir is thus described by
Sir William Maxwell:-
“If a woman dies in childbirth, either before delivery or after
the birth of a child, and before the forty days of uncleanness
have expired, she is popularly supposed to become a langsugyar, a
flying demon of the nature of the ‘white lady?or ‘banshee.?br>
To prevent this a quantity of glass beads are put in the mouth of
the corpse, a hen’s egg is put under each arm-pit, and needles are
placed in the palms of the hands. It is believed that if this is
done the dead woman cannot become a langsuyar, as she cannot open
her mouth to shriek (ngilai) or wave her arms as wings, or open
and shut her hands to assist her flight.”[1]
The superstitions about the Langsuir, however, do not end here,
for with regard to its origin the Selangor Malays tell the
following story:-
The original Langsuir (whose embodiment is supposed to be a kind
of night-owl) is described as being a woman of dazzling beauty,
who died from the shock of hearing that her child was stillborn,
and had taken the shape of the Pontianak.[2]
On hearing this terrible news, she “clapped her hands,?and
without further warning “flew whinnying away to a tree, upon which
she perched.?She may be known by her robe of green, by her
tapering nails of extraordinary length (a mark of beauty), and by
the long jet black tresses which she allows to fall down to her
ankles ?only, alas! (for the truth must be told) in order to
conceal the hole in the back of her neck through which she sucks
the blood of children! These vampire-like proclivities of hers
may, however, be successfully combated if the right means are
adopted, for if you are able to catch her, cut short her nails and
luxuriant tresses, and stuff them into the hole in her neck, she
will become tame and indistinguishable from an ordinary woman,
remaining so for years.
Cases have been known, indeed, in which she has become a wife and
a mother, until she was allowed to dance at a village
merry-making, when she at once reverted to her ghostly form, and
flew off into the dark and gloomy forest from whence she came.
In their wild state, a Malay once informed me, these
woman-vampires are exceedingly fond of fish, and once and again
may be seen “sitting in crowds on the fishing-stakes at the river
mouth awaiting an opportunity to steal the fish.?However that may
be, it seems curiously in keeping with the following charm for
“laying?a Langsuir:-
“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.?/i>
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.[3] 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 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 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.
References:
[1] J.R.A.S, S.B., No.7, p.28., Cp “Langsuior, the female
familiar, differs hardly at all from the bajong, except that she
is a little more baneful, and when under the control of a man he
sometimes becomes the victim of her attractions, and she will even
bear him elfin children.??Swett., Mal., Sketches, p.198
[2] “Pontianak?appears to be synonymous with “Mati-anak,?which
may perhaps be a shorter form of Mati Beranak (“stillborn?;
indeed, one of the charms against the Pontianak which I collected,
commenced with the words, “Pontianak mat beranak.?br>
[3] Mr Clifford (of Pahang), however speaks of “that weird little
white animal, the Mati-anak, that makes beast noises round the
graves of children??In court and Kampong, p.231
About the origin of the name of Pontianak
About the origin of the name Pontianak, Indonesia, I quote this
info from http://indahnesia.com/frame.php?link=/Indonesia/Kalimantan/Barat/Barat.php&lang=&code=BARPON
Pontianak is a flourishing center of trade with about half a
milion inhabitants, of which 30 per cent is from Chinese origin.
The city is located several km from sea, outside the mangrove
forests along the coast, on the split of the Kapuas and Landak.
Towards the south, the 5400 sq.km. wide Kapuas delta. Pontianak
got it's good position because of it's strategical location, the
rival sultanates and a non-superstitious Arab.
In 1770 Syarif Abdul Rahman al-Gadri, Arab with a disputable
reputation because of his little friendly actions on open seas
changed his mind: he decided to improve his life and to settle
himself. He choose an empty stretch of land which no one wanted to
have because it would be the place of the bad spirits ( Malay:
Pontianak ). The Arab was a man with common sense. He scared away
the Pontianak in the same way he usually did with his earthy
enemies: with a large amount of cannons. The spirits fled, but the
name was kept.
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