178 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



because he was afraid that he did not tell us at the 

 time that the cave was supposed to be the home of 

 Orang Bunyi, or Voice Folk. These are invisible 

 supernatural people who inhabit the forest, and who 

 may sometimes be heard but never seen. Stories are 

 told of Malays who have wandered in the forest 

 depths until they reached the outskirts of villages 

 inhabited by the Voice Folk, and heard the cooing of 

 the tame pigeons round their dwellings. The Malays 

 say they occasionally hear the Voice Folk calling to 

 each other in the forest, and that their voice is exactly 

 like that of human people. He who hears them 

 generally finds that the voice is calling him by name. 

 " Awang ! Oh, Awang ! " it will cry, if Awang be his 

 name; "come here, some one is calling you. Come 

 quickly." When one hears the voice, the only thing 

 to do is to seek safety in flight ; but sometimes a man, 

 either mistaking the tones for those of some fellow- 

 mortal, or fascinated into wilfully seeking his doom, 

 answers the call. If he does so, his fate is sealed. 

 He cannot turn back ; an irresistible force compels 

 him to follow the voice farther and farther into the 

 forest depths, where finally the Voice Folk make 

 themselves visible to him. He then becomes one of 

 them, and, like them, invisible to mankind. Once, 

 the Malays relate, a man returned to his village after 

 having married a Voice Woman. But he, they say, 

 is the only man who has ever returned, and he died 

 nearly twenty years ago. 



Upon the day appointed for the drive, W., my 

 brother Eric, and I met Hussein and some dozen 

 Malays at the foot of Gunong Kroh. Our plan was 



