208 SHORT NOTES. 
On the supposed evil influence exercised by ehosts 
in the Malay Peninsula. 
Some four years ago when I was engaged in certain pros- 
pecting operations in the highlands of Pahang on the borders of 
that State with Perak, I had occasion to make a somewhat 
lengthy stay at a place called Kampar on the Tué river, one 
of the tributaries of the Betok, in its turn a tributary of the 
Jelai, the principal feeder of the Pahang River. I selected this 
spot because it had already been cleared of large trees and had 
only recently been in occupation as a Sakai Settlement, from 
the remains of which, we reared our unpretentious little camp. 
The Sakais however strongly advised us to go elsewhere alleg- 
ing that this place was haunted by elephant ghosts and that they 
had been the direct cause of a number of deaths among them, 
principally among their children, whose remains lie buried there. 
It is necessary to explain that at the back of this place, not 
fifty yards away, is to be seen one of those peculiar muddy 
pools which animals of all kinds frequent for their saline proper- 
ties, this particular one being known as the Kubang Gajah 
Hantu (the mud pool of the ghostly elephants). These salt licks 
are also known as genutsin Malay. When the Sakais refer to this 
place it is usually with bated breath and a mysterious and awesome 
gesture. These men declared that almost nightly elephants are 
seen and heard breaking twigs and branches and wallowing in 
this mud pool, and yet in the morning, not a vestige of their 
spoor can be seen anywhere. Of this I am certain, the prints 
of deer and pigs were always plentiful and fresh, but no elephant 
could have been within miles of the place during my residence 
in that locality. My mandor’s wife, an oldish person, who always 
followed her husband in his’ jovrrneys doing the cooking for my 
followers, declared that the first night we slept there, she and 
all my men heard continued long drawn wails, like a long wee- 
é-é-€ which went on without intermission until almost daylight. 
This noise they said came from those Sakai children buried there. 
This account is interesting from an ethnological standpoint 
-in so far as it illustrates the beliefs and superstitions of a race 
of very primitive people. As for the number of children dying 
Jour, Straits Branch 
