44 
PAPERS ON MALAY SUB^FECTS. 
statement tliat " the foaming torrents and noisy cascades 
that dnsh down the ra\nnes liaye inspired the Bakai with 
terror." 
Then there are others* There is the Nyani Kengmolc 
who gives dysentery and diarrhoea : he wears the form 
of a dog. There is the N}jani Ngol, of protean animal 
semblance, who gives haemorrhage and pain in cliildbirth. 
Thej'e is the pig-sliaped ^i/ttni Pt'injlumt w^ho gives cramp 
in the legs and arras. There is the Ntfuni Lengweh 
shaped like a siamang, Avho gives stiff necks and head- 
aches: he too has a enphemistic title, atdi Jm-jnltu, or 
"the gentleman on the tree." For he loves certain 
trees — notably, the jelniong, the jwlai and the larger 
species of am. There is the N'yani Senget (but it is 
safer to call him "the icy one," mat pechir) who looks 
like a Malay and gives you cholera. The Ntfani Uengl'tt 
brings fever, but he is not a Nijcini of the regukr type : 
he is born of the exhalations of the poison -tree at tlie 
navel of the seas— the tree that slew the gigantic 
Haurians * vnth which the world was once infested. In 
this case the victim dreams of fire. So too the spirit of 
toothache is a sort of wliite ant that gnaws at the roots 
of our molars and goes by the name of OtL The spirit 
of elephantiasis is formless— or if he lias a form no 
dreamer has yet identified him — he is the Nijmd Semclii. 
Some ghosts have less insidious methods. The Xyani 
Chettyen looks hke a child ; he haunts the w^ater (especi- 
ally wdiere the river is deep) and cuts at his victims with 
a small knife ; - he eats liis prey besides killing him. The 
ghost-bird or lY/^tui/ Kldk imitates the cry of a man and 
trades on the inqnisitiveness of strangers. The victim 
approaches; the hh^ swoops; the spirit of life leaves 
' aionitor-Jj«ards (tFaicnt). - The Mahrf pimu paunii. 
