10 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



sufficient in itself. While it is true that the forest 

 lies almost at their doors, they never forget not 

 merely that no man knows its extent, but that it 

 actually is without bound or limit. 



To the Malays the great enveloping forest is full 

 of supernatural powers. There are the wonderful 

 Jin Tanah, the Earth Spirits ; Gergasi, the great 

 tusked giants; Orang Bunyi, the invisible Voice 

 Folk. There are individual creatures such as Hantu 

 Pemburu, the Spectral Hunter; mountain top and 

 river pool have their local spirits ; and there are 

 classes innumerable of ghosts, goblins, and demons. 



They are known as Hantu Hutan the Spirits of 

 the Forest, and are as real to the Malays and as 

 much dreaded as the tigers and other wild animals 

 of the forest. 



Men, such as rattan-cutters or gutta-hunters, whose 

 vocations take them into the forest, repeat a short 

 charm to avert the wrath or displeasure of these 

 spirits ; and the farther they go from home the 

 more careful are they to make use of due ceremony 

 and incantation. 



The forest envelops their homes and their lives ; 

 but, as with the fisherfolk and the sea, the more they 

 explore it the more they know that it is a world 

 apart. That it is so near and extends so far adds to 

 it majesty and terror. In order to realise something 

 of what the Malay forest is, one may perhaps look 

 at it for a moment from the point of view of the 

 Malays, who know it better than any one else. And 

 in the charms, which have been handed down from 

 generation to generation, and which the Malays 



