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News by Straits Times dated
21/3/98
Article called: Beware The Banshee By Sham Kurunakaran
Ireland is known not only for its peculiar shamshock flower, the
infamous "Blarney Stone" and IRA bombings. Ancient Eire also lays
claim to a most sinister figure: The Banshee.
In legends, the banshee is depicted as a mournful creature, whose
cries and walls portend the impending death of certain
individuals. Thus banshees became known as the harbinger of death
and doom. Banshees were originally the "beansidhe" (meaning woman
fairy). Hence, a banshee was perceived as an attendant fairy who
would follow the old families of Eire and wail to them when death
approached. The banshee followed these families even across oceans
and to distant lands.
In appearance, there is a diversity of forms. Sometimes, she is in
the form of a sweet, singing virgin. This banshee is believed to
be the one who has perished while still young, and who has
empowered by the "sidhe" to carry out her gruesome task. The
significant difference here is that instead of wailing associated
with banshees, she sings in a sweet but sad way. The one who is
doomed to die will see her and will be filled with peace instead
of horror and doom.
The other banshee is more frightening to behold. She is seen at
night as a white shrouded woman. Crouched beneath a tree, she
cries with veiled face (isn't it similar to "Pontianak" [Malaysian
version of vampire]). If she is not crouched, then she will be
flying past in the moonlight, her long hair trailing behind her as
she cries bitterly. She will beckon the doomed individual and clap
her hands. The funeral cry of the peasantry is said to be an
imitation of her cry (only the original one is more mournful). Any
person catching sight of her is filled with dread and fear and the
doomed individual is said to suffer a great deal before death
finally claims him.
When more than one banshee is present, wailing, singing and
clapping in chorus, it is believed that some holy or great person
faces impending death. An omen that sometimes accompanies the
banshee is called the "coach-a-bower", which is apparition of an
immense black coach, a coffin on top, drawn by headless horses. It
will be driven by a headless phantom called "Dullahan", and will
go rumbling right up to the door of the doomed soul. If the coach
is opened, a basin of blood will be thrown in that person's face.
Report on Discovery Channel
By SPI Mathwizard
I remembered I watched on Discovery Channel about a taxi driver
who claimed to have seen Pontianak. He said it was very late at
night, and he saw a girl in white gown and long hair standing at
the road side waving at him. So he slowed the vehicle down to pick
up the girl. But then he started to feel something is not right
and decided to drive on instead. He looked into the rear mirror
and saw the girl still waving at him, as if wanted him to go back
and pick her up. Then his car started to "shake", as if it will
disintegrate...eventually the thing was over....
Assuming that this is true, there is no evidence that this is
Pontianak...it could just be any spirit....if the girl apparition
was wearing green gown instead of white, I doubt the driver will
call it "Pontianak"....so is Pontianak just mean any spirit that
match the description, i.e. female, long hair, white gown? But
some stories also involve 'Pontianak' in baju kurung? The point
is, how to differentiate Pontianaks with other spirits?
Also there is a similar entity in Indonesia known as the
Kuntilanak, and some believe them to be the souls who died of road
accidents with loss of blood, therefore they suck blood. But hey,
there are many male drivers died in road accident, but kuntilanaks
are all reported to be females?
Here is a so-called classical Pontianak story in Malaysia taken
from the internet: http://www.geocities.com/penangowl/asia/002.html.
I think it is only an urban legend though.
I remember there is a rumor a few years ago, that a blood sucker
is at loss in Johor Bahru and other parts of the Malaysia. It goes
around searching for young female virgins. Rumors claim that a few
lives had already been taken. But the police and hospital denied
it. Witnesses claim that the blood sucker is an old lady dressed
in white with a hood around it's head. Some Malays believe that
the blood sucker is a 'Pontianak'.
There is another version: from what I heard that time (probably in
secondary two or three), a lady will go around asking people
whether she is beautiful, answer 'yes' or 'no' will both result in
terrible consequences. If I remembered correctly, if you said yes,
then she will revealed her face which is worm-infected, and put
those worms on your face to turn yourself into that like her
(since you said it is beautiful)....bla bla bla...it is said that
she needs flesh blood from virgins to remain youthful etc.... I
think at that time that this is another urban legend, with
similarities with legend in Japan regarding a female spirit with
wide mouth (from ear to ear)....she will tear your mouth if you
answered yes and kill you if answered no.....clearly the urban
legend with same structure is repeated with some variations...In
both stories, the lady face is behind a mask. so we are not able
to see her true identity.
Owl's Ghost Stories
Highway Nightmare
8 September 1997
This is an interesting version of an old urban legend. At least I
though it was interesting. Along the North-South highway in
Malaysia, there are various spots marked with sign alerting
drivers of crosswind. The dual carriageway is one of the world's
most advance expressway and hence, when designing it, one would
assume that the planners would not have built it with crosswind
sections. The expressway is open for 24 hours and thousands of
vehicles use it everyday. However, there is hardly anyone who has
seen the wind indicator marking the presence of such claimed
crosswind.
I found out later that these sections are actually black spots for
'mystery accidents'. As all these sections are neither winding nor
slippery, the authorities could not find any explanation of those
accidents. A study revealed that those areas are either cemetery
sites of the local tribe before the highway was built, or they
were the so-called 'dark' areas by the local tribes. Therefore,
those crosswind warnings were put up just to warn drivers so that
they are more alert and careful as they were driving along those
stretches, especially at night since the highway is not lighted.
None of the accidents are, however, worth mentioning here. No one
has ever reported seeing a ghost or spirit driving them away from
their senses or any sort of unexplained phenomena happening there.
Nevertheless, there is an incident that happened on the highway
that has caught the attention of a lot of people. This incident
does not happen along any of those crosswind sections but,
instead, near the tunnel on the northern section of the highway.
Before approaching the tunnel, drivers will go through highly
areas with the hill on one side and a sharp cliff on the other.
The sharp bends caused the authorities to put the speed limit down
to 80kmph (110kmph for most of the highway). This story went
public the first time when someone called in to the radio during a
ghost story programme. What make this story even more interesting
are the several calls later from witnesses and relatives to verify
that the story is true.
The incident happened on a Malay couple with a small baby. They
were driving along the expressway on a late night. It must have
been past 2am then and there aren't many private cars at those
hours. As they got near the tunnel, their car broke down. Perhaps
it is the hilly road, which put a lot of stress on the car, that
caused the car to broke down more than anything else. The man
stopped his car along the emergency lane and got off the car to
see if there was anything he could do. His wife was sitting at the
back of the car with their baby then. He got off the car, opened
up the engine and apparently was doing something there. The wife
just waited in the car with their baby since she is the type of
people who has the slightest idea about cars. As the engine cover
was turned up, the lady could not see what her husband was doing
in front.
Then, there was no noise at all. She started to get worried.
Perhaps more worried about not being able to get out of there than
if there would be anything wrong with her husband. Then the baby
started crying. She carried her up and tried to calm her down.
However, the baby kept crying and crying. Afterwards, she noticed
two police cars drove by. They slowed down as they past her. As
she thought they would stop, the police cars suddenly sped off.
Then she heard a shrieking break of the police cars ahead.
Apparently, the police stopped their cars under the lights of the
tunnel about 100 metres ahead. Then, she started hearing the
policemen shouting at her. They shouted at her and asked her to
get out of the car and run towards them. She got panic upon
hearing that. Then, worry about her baby's and her own safety, she
grabbed her baby, got out of the car and started running as fast
as she could towards the policemen.
As she was running, they kept shouting at her to hurry and asked
her not to look back. As she almost got to where the policemen
were, she suddenly thought of her husband. She turn her head back
to take a look while continued running. To her horror, she saw
three 'pontianak' with lots of blood on their mouth. She saw one
of them holding her husband's head and licking off the dripping
blood while two others were busy sucking the blood from the man's
body.
Two policemen, fearing that she may stop running upon seeing that,
rushed to her and dragged her into one of the police car. They
shot off as fast as they could after that. Seven policemen
witnessed this incident. When the police got there, the man was
lying there headless and 'bloodless'. The police, after
interviewing the widow and the seven policemen who witnessed the
incident, decided to close the case. In the radio programme,
someone called up later to say that he was one of the policemen
there at that time while another called up claiming to be the
victim's uncle. He said he refused to believe the story and had
applied for the case to be reopened for investigation. He believes
it was a murder case. Another caller said his sister, the widow,
was distressed after the incident and he appealed to all listeners
to believe that the story is true and be more careful on the
highway.
Owl's Ghost Stories
This story did not happen to me, but one of my friends' granddad
encountered this.
The Pontianak is the female vampire- even more fearsome then your
ordinary western vampire- of Asian origin. She's believed to be
the spirit of a woman who died in childbirth. She relishes all
types of blood, but the blood of a newborn is supposed to be the
most preferred blood. She kills pregnant women and eats the fetus.
There is no known way of killing this vile creature, but to stop
it, one must drive a nail into it's neck-the creature will change
back to the woman it once was - or one must disrobe. But to do
such a thing, the person must posses an ugly body. It's said that
the pontianak is fearful of sharp objects. It's also said that if
one were to tie a red thread from a banana tree (the Pontianak's
home) to the foot of the person's bed, the Pontianak would have to
do the person's bidding, trapped.
This forms the base of the story I'm about to relate.
My friend's grandad (let's call him D) had a poor uncle who was
superstitious. One day, he stuck several pins, tied to a red
thread into a banana tree and tied the other end to the foot of
his bed. That night, D's uncle heard a woman crying outside his
window. He knew this had to be the vampire for she was begging D's
uncle to release her. D's uncle said no can do unless she gives
him the winning numbers to the lottery. The creature did so and
D's uncle struck 1st prize at the lottery. Knowing the Pontianak
was his lucky charm, he refused to release her.
He was becoming rich as time passed and had become increasingly
arrogant. With his money, he set up an illegal money lending
operation. All this while the Pontianak was being held prisoner.
One day, D's uncle pressured a debtor so badly that the poor man
committed suicide. The debtor's wife wanted revenge and so one
night she went to the banana tree and removed the pins. It was the
only thing holding the Pontianak at bay.
The next morning, there was a horrible discovery. D's uncle had
been found at the banana tree, with shiny needles stuck into his
skull, the thing was that there was no trace of blood. The police
were called in but had to close the case because of insufficient
leads and clues.
D however knows what caused the death. It was the Pontianak who
took revenge on D's uncle because he'd caused it a lot of pain.
So you see people, never dabble in the dark arts, you will suffer
the consequences.......
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