26 MALAY POISONS AND CHARM CUBES 



Storm-God, who haunts river, pool, mere, and lake 

 vdth his bii'd berek-herek, the square-tailed bee-eater, 

 and his three blood-suckiiig hell-hounds. There is, 

 among others, the haniu bangkit, a graveyard goblin 

 or " sheeted ghost," the departed spirit of a man in 

 hie grave-clothes so hampered by the winding-sheet 

 that it can move only by rolling over the groimd ; there 

 is also halong hidaij an evil spirit supposed to live in 

 rivers and to liave the form of an open mat in which it 

 envelops and drowns its victims. The Malay were- 

 tiger that results from a man turning himself into a 

 tiger by magic agencies (Ijcantliropy) is in a class by 

 itself, and is probably an example of impulsive insanity. 

 It is akin to the were-wolf and the were-leopard, and 

 the hare of Queen's County, recorded by Yeats, that 

 was eventually traced to the person of an old Irish 

 witch (Ref. 17). 



Many Kelantan people think that disease is sent by 

 God. According to the teaching of To' Bomor Enche' 

 Harun it came about in this way : "During the time 

 of King Solomon, a son of the Prime Minister was 

 walking in a garden, when without warning, he fell 

 down suddenly as if bereft of his senses. Tlie sad news 

 of this event soon reached his father the Mintiri AsaJ, 

 who, taking liis son Berkhia with him, went at once to 

 Nabi Allah Sulaiman (Solomon) and said * He is my 

 son,' When King Solomon saw what had happened 

 to Berkhia he was very much surprised, and said it was 

 owing to the Will of God that such an event had 

 occurred. He remarked that he had heard from 

 Jibrael (the Archangel Gabriel) that this kind of illness 

 is the most important of all diseases ; it is called 

 BihuV-almur (Ar.) or Angin Merah (Malay ' red 

 wind '). The king asked permission from God to cast 

 this disease out of the body of the Prime Minister's 



