100 
FASCICULI MALAYENSES 
the form of a kijang or muntjac ( Cervulus muntjac ) which, though alive, was 
of solid gold. He took it with him in a boat across the river Temongoh, but 
began during the passage to speculate as to what he would do with his new 
found wealth. At last he remarked, ‘ I will go to Mecca and become a haji 
so that all men may reverence me.’ As he said these words the hibu mas 
dived into the water and disappeared. The fact that, in some districts, the 
name of Allah may not be mentioned in a mine, as well as the present story, 
would seem to show that mineral spirits are more decidedly pagan than many 
others, and are unwilling to recognize the existence of the new spiritual regime. 
Just as the Patani fishermen believe that their boats have souls, so their 
compatriots on shore believe that every house has a semangat , which they 
regard as the exact equivalent of the mayor prahu ( antea , pp. 80, 81). The 
semangat rumah , or ‘ house soul,’ comes automatically into existence as the 
various parts of the walls and the roof are fitted together, and preserves the 
house as an organic whole from dissolution. All those peculiar nocturnal 
sounds that one hears, even in a European house, often without being able to 
assign them a cause, are believed in Patani, where the houses are far more 
noisy at night, to be expressions of the soul of the building. Besides 
buildings, wooden chests, in which rich Malays sometimes store their finery 
and treasures, are said to have individual semangat , and it is believed that if 
the soul of such a chest escape, that chest is a ‘ dead thing ’ ( barang matt ) — 
which it was not before — and luck deserts its owner, who will become ‘ utterly 
poor.’ On one occasion, a man from whom I was desirous of buying some 
wickerwork shields, now very rare, alleged as a reason for not selling them 
the danger of the escape of a chest’s semangat if the lid were opened on a 
Friday, on which day I happened to enquire about them. Friday, as has been 
previously noted, is not only the Mahommedan Sabbath, but also the day of 
the week on which all spirits have additional power. 
Badi , or ‘ Mischief' The name badi 1 also is said by some to be of 
Hindu extraction, but the idea it conveys to a Malay peasant is probably 
primitive, though its meaning has undergone a certain evolution in the more 
civilized districts l. 2 of the Peninsula, for, while in Patani, Jalor, or Nawngchik, 
badi are definite spirits, reckoned like other spirits and like animals by the 
‘ tail ’ ( ekor ), in the Federated Malay States they appear to be little more than 
evil influences, devoid of personality. The badi , unlike the souls previously 
described, with none of which it is ever confused, is essentially a bad spirit, and 
the word is often translated ‘ mischief’ ; it is the evil thing in beast or man that 
l. Maxwell, loc. c it., p. 34, s.v. badei. 
2. Wilkinson, loc. cit ., p. 78. 
