FASCICULI MALATENSES 
23 
not the belief in other parts of the Malay Peninsula, and, in any case, I do 
not think there is any reason why one part of the spiritual essence of a person 
should not go to heaven while the other remains on earth, for although the 
badi of a murdered Mahommedan remains by his bones, this does not prevent 
him from enjoying the delights of Paradise. The fact is that in a jumble ot 
incompatible religions like that of the Patani Malays we must not expect dearly 
defined tenets, while even in the beliefs of savages, whose religion has not been 
influenced by a higher culture, the materialism of their spiritual conceptions 
does not argue a logical or dogmatic creed. The bantu langsuir is regarded in 
Upper Perak and the Patani States as being a jungle spirit (bantu butan\ 
which cannot be tamed, but in some parts of the Peninsula it can be transformed 
into a living woman by cutting off its long locks and stuffing them down 
the hole in the back of its neck. 1 In the former localities it is believed to sit 
in the peculiar Ficus known as paum jerei * and to come into the village at 
night and possess women. 
Of actual ancestor-worship the traces are comparatively slight, though 
the very word bantu , now chiefly, but not entirely, applied to spirits which 
have no direct connexion with men, is believed by some authorities 1 3 to be a 
Sanscrit word meaning c dead/ At the present day, however, offerings to 
bantu are frequently made in cemeteries, especially in the neighbourhood of 
Patani Town, and also in waste places where those who have died a 4 5 bad 1 
death are buried. Dutiful children visit their parents* graves once a year, 
generally on a Mahommedan c great day * (hart raya ), and pour water on them, 
4 to keep their parents cool,* and the same ceremony was performed by the 
ex-Raja of Patani whenever he was about to leave his state. When persons 
have died a 4 bad * or unlucky death it is not performed, because their children 
would be afraid to visit the grave. The idea conveyed may be the same as 
that of the Orang Laut of Trang when they bury a bottle of water 4 with the 
corpse. 
To explain another series of beliefs, which have been described with some, 
but not with full, justification as a system of ancestor-worship/ it will be 
necessary to embark on a discussion of the word kramat , the exact derivation 
1, Ske.it, Malay Magic, p. 326. According to this author the languir was originally a woman who Hied on 
hearing that her child was stillborn. 
2, The seed of this parasite, probably introduced by a bird, germinates in some cavity of the trunk of another 
tree. Hence it sends Us branches upwards, and its tangled twisted roots downwards, until it strangle* its host, which 
finally disappears, disintegrated by the weather. The jertt then standi upon its own legs, or rather roots, its weird 
form causing it to be regarded with superstitious reverence in the Andamans, in Borneo and elsewhere, as well as in 
Malaya. Malay rajas in the Peninsula are fond of comparing the British rule to it, they themselves being the 
original host. 
3, Fame, Dictionnatn Malah-Frattfaii^ vol, i, p. 1913, », v, harttu, 
4, An Ha, part i, p. 64 
5, A. O. Blagden, Malay Magit r pp. 673 tt pettta. 
