FOLK-LORE AND POPULAR RELIGION OF THE MALAYS. 5 



the Pawang was duly called upon to exorcize it, and under his 

 superintendence the tree was cut down, after which there was 

 no more trouble. But it is certain that it would have been 

 excessively dangerous for an ordinary layman to do so. 



This point may be illustrated by a case which was reported 

 to me soon after it occurred and which again shows the 

 intimate connection of spirits with trees. A Javanese coolie, 

 on the main road near Ayer Panas, cut down a tree which 

 was known to be occupied by a hantu. He was thereupon 

 seized with what from the description appears to have been 

 an epileptic fit and showed all the traditional symptoms of 

 demoniac possession. He did not recover till his friends had 

 carried out the directions of the spirit (speaking through the 

 sufferer's mouth, it seems), viz., to burn incense, offer rice and 

 release a fowl. After which the hantu left him. 



In many places there are trees which are pretty generally 

 believed to be the abodes of spirits, and not one Malay in ten 

 would venture to cut one down, while most people would 

 hardly dare to go near one after dark. On one occasion an 

 exceptionally intelligent Malay, with whom I was discussing 

 the terms on which he proposed to take up a contract for 

 clearing the banks of a river, made it an absolute condition 

 that he should not be compelled to cut down a particular tree 

 which overhung the stream, on the ground that it was a 

 "spirit" tree. That tree had to be excluded from the contract. 



The accredited intermediary between men and spirits is the 

 person who has already been referred to several times as the 

 Pawang : the Pawang is a functionary of great and traditional 

 importance in a Malay village, though in places near towns 

 the office is falling into abeyance, in the inland districts, 

 however, the Pawang is still a power, and is regarded as part 

 of the constituted order of society, without whom no village 

 community would be complete. It must be clearly understood 

 that he has nothing whatever to do with the official Muham- 

 madan religion of the Mosque : the village has its regular staff 

 of elders — the hnam, Kliatib and Bilal — for the Mosque 

 service. But the Pazuang is quite outside this system, and 

 belongs to a different and much older order of ideas ; he may 



