38 
FASCICULI MALAYENSES 
of them takes up its abode in the heart of every Mahommedan and prevents 
him from becoming wicked* My informants were sure that white men must 
also have a jinn in their hearts, but did not know whether it would be one of 
Mahommed’s Parrots or some other kind* 
The Earth Spirits . The Earth Spirits are also called Jinn ham (Black Jinn) 
or Jinn Kappir (Infidel Jinn) ; by medicine-men they are addressed as Siriku 
Burnt , and they are known to midwives as Cbinei. They are those spirits which 
have the closest connexion with men, as they are believed to live in the ground 
below human habitations, and to attempt, as Cbinet , to substitute changelings 
for newly-born children, especially in rich families. They are connected with 
the ghosts that wear the red caps which confer the power of invisibility, but I have 
heard it denied that they are identical with them. As Jinn Kappir they take 
the proper form of dogs and are regarded as the guardians of hidden treasure, 
especially round Fatani town, where it is believed, very possibly with truth, 
that during the Siamese invasions of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth 
centuries many rich Malays concealed their valuables and were killed or taken 
away as prisoners of war before they could recover them. The Jinn sometimes 
reveal these treasures to persons to whom they take a fancy, appearing as little 
old men with sacks of gold on their backs. These they put down on the ground, 
and their favourite can take what he will away ; but if any one else attempts 
to do so the treasure sinks into the earth. It is said that a Patani Malay found 
a treasure of the kind a few years ago and agreed to give a friend, who was 
passing, half,on condition that he helped him to remove it and said nothing about 
it, for secrecy was necessary lest the raja should claim it. The two had stowed 
the treasure away under a tree, and had gone down to the river to wash their 
hands, when the temptation to murder his friend, and so to obtain the whole 
instead of a half, proved too much for the second man. After throwing the 
body into the river he returned to the tree, only to find that the gold had 
disappeared. I was told that he was afterwards convicted of the murder and 
executed. One of our own men, a fisherman by trade, assured me that near 
the same spot he had met an old man one moonlight night. He had recognized 
that the old man was not human, because he floated in the air and did not 
always remain the same size, so he said some charm and the apparition 
disappeared. The same thing happened three times, and at last our man in 
desperation lifted up his own sarongs thus exposing his person and so causing 
the spirit to retire ashamed. 1 4 1 was a fool/ he remarked in telling the story, 
* for certainly the spirit had taken a liking to me, and l might have gained the 
i. He told me the same story months later, omitting to mention how he got rid of the spirit. I may say 
that he waa a habitual opium smoker. 
