The Rolling Ghost (滚蛋鬼)

I am not sure what is the real difference amongst ‘hantu pocong’ (pocong ghost), ‘hantu bungkus’ (package ghost) and hantu golek’ (rolling ghost) as their appearance look almost the same. My learnt Malay friend told me that the ‘hantu bungkus’ is hollow inside compared to ‘hantu pocong’, while the ‘hantu golek’ rolls in a horizontal motion but ‘hantu pocong’ jumps vertically. To me, they are all ‘hantu’ for sure and these Malaysian ghosts like to chase after night travellers for sure too!

Faizal said he had once a close encounter with ‘hantu golek’ after attending a night prayer in a mosque not far from his house but in order to reach the mosque, Faizal must pass through a piece of rubber plantation. It was a Friday night just after the Isyak prayer, the worshippers continued to recite Yasin so as to accumulate more merits on Friday night. After the Yasin prayer, the sky started to drizzle and Faizal had to wait until the rain stopped before getting on his bicycle. By the time Faizal started to head home, it was almost midnight.

The surrounding was gloomy and wet. The only audible sounds were that of the frogs and crickets. The only light source was Faizal’s not so bright bicycle headlamp. So, with extra precautions; Faizal peddled his bicycle carefully on the muddy red soil returning path which was full of big and small water pockets. Since the path was very slippery, a small carelessness would make the bicycle overturned. Luckily, Faizal was a seasoned cyclist and even that he found difficulties in negotiating that extremely harsh surface of the pavement.

When Faizal was approaching the rubber plantation, he really struggled to get his bicycle under control as the surrounding was not only slippery, it was also extremely dark. Added to Faizal’s burden was that he suddenly felt there was an additional weight being loaded on the back of his bicycle as if someone suddenly hopped on to it. At this point, Faizal still think that feeling was caused by his bicycle tyres deeply wedged into that sticky and slimy red soil. So, he quickly jumped down from his bicycle and inspected the tyres. Strange but true that none of the tyres was jammed inside mud pools.

After making sure that his bicycle was not trapped, he immediately hopped onto his bicycle and headed home. Faizal’s didn’t go very far before he felt the mysterious weight had returned. Again, he stopped and inspected his tyres but nothing was found. This time, Faizal started to feel a little uneasy and goose bumps started to developed all over his body. Faizal started to think of ghosts and cold sweat started to wet his shirt. Perhaps some supernatural stuffs were waiting ahead of him he thought.

There was nothing Faizal could do but continue to hop onto his bicycle and cycling forward. Suddenly, he heard someone was calling his name: “Faizal! Faizal!” At first Faizal thought it was someone he knew calling him. So, he quickly turned his back but found he was all alone in the pitched dark rubber plantation. Faizal started to remember his late granny’s advice: “don’t look back” at night as there are bound to be many ghosts wandering at night. Just as when Faizal was pondering still, he heard his name was being called once more: “Faizal! Faizal!”

This time, Faizal dared not look behind. He quickly jumped onto his bicycle and cycled as hard as he could in the hope to get out from the cursed rubber plantation.

Just as Faizal was peddling hard, he suddenly heard the noise of something rolling at high speed at him. Instinctively, he turned his head and saw a white package that resembles a corpse in white funeral shroud rolling towards him. Faizal yelled out: “OMG! It is the notorious hantu golek!!”

Seeing the hantu golek was fast approaching, Faizal tried to peddle his bicycle harder but the old bicycle could only move thus fast. In a split of a second, Faizal sensed the back seat of his bicycle suddenly being jerked as if some heavy load just landed at his back thus producing a loud bump.

This sudden addition of extra load caused Faizal to lose control and his handle swayed left and right rigorously and finally he and his bicycle crushed into a muddy ditch beside the pathway. With a mouthful of mud, Faizal crawled out from the ditch and saw the ‘hantu golek’ was in the middle of the pathway. Its location was very close to the place Faizal rammed into the ditch.

At this point, Faizal could have a closer encounter with the hantu golek. According to Faizal, the creature has a pair of shinning red eyes, it has a mouthful of sharp teeth and also very long and sharp finger nails. As recalled by Faizal, that hantu golek was as if ready to jump onto him and made the kill. He was so scared that he felt like peeing in his pants. All of a sudden, a gust of strength came from nowhere caused Faizal to dart out from the ditch and ran as fast as he could until he reached his house while calling the God’s name.

Faizal only dared to venture back to the place to retrieve his bicycle the next morning. His bicycle was still in the ditch together with his songkok (hat) and slippers too. To his surprised, Faizal also found a piece of broken old tombstone beside his bicycle. Perhaps the owner of the old tomb was angry at Faizal for breaking its tombstone? Faizal could only have guessed.