THE WOBK OF THE BOMOR 21 



tliis case the word haniu is used on account of the soft 

 white ** floats " of very loose cortical tissue which give 

 the plant an uncanny appearance in the water. 



Ridley refers to the use of the word hantu as corre- 

 sponding to the word " false " as applied to plant names. 

 He giv^ several others in addition to those to which 

 reference has been made in his " List of Plant Names." 

 Among them are hunga limitu, the ghost flower " 

 (Strophanthus jackianuSjWaU., Apocynacese), and limau 

 haniu, the wild pomelo (Citrus decumana, Linn., var. 

 Rutaceae) ; but the most interesting of them all is 

 paku langsjiiVy the bird*s-nest fern of Selangor (Tham- 

 nopteris nidus-avis, Linn,, Fihcies), The Imigsidr, a 

 terrible female vampire afflicting pregnant women, is 

 supposed to make her home in this wild jungle fern- 

 Wilkinson, on the other hand, says that Jiantu, when 

 applied to plant names, has the meaning of " wild " as 

 against " cultivated " (by human agency), the theory 

 being that ghosts themselves plant these wild plants. 

 Certain jungle trees (tucdaTig or sialang) in which wild 

 bees nest are supposed to afford abiding places for 

 spirits in the large hollow projections from the trunk 

 by which they are characterised. The owl, a harbinger 

 of calamity, is called the " ghost-bird " on account of 

 its ghostly flight in the darkness • the dismal fish-owl, 

 with its repulsive laugh QmWt haw^ haw, ho)^ is nick- 

 jaamed To* ketamjpi, or ** old-man-w^innow-the-rice-for- 

 the-burial feast," and Sir Frank Swettenham gives two 

 more gruesome names — imibok larong, " nail-the- 

 cofi&n/ ' and charek kqfan^ ' * rend-the-shroud/ * Probably 

 these names are suggested by the unearthly cries of the 

 ill-omened owl. Certain clouds, when of very quaint 

 or changing form {hantu dagok)^ are beheved to be the 

 ghosts of murdered men. Li Kedah an evil spirit 

 called Hantu Doman is a survival of the Monkey-God, 



