It is a common local belief that ghosts are afraid of fierce
people. So, the louder and dirtier words that can be uttered from your mouth
the better it is to drive away ghosts. But, is this always the case? I can tell
you this story, but please don’t try it for I shall not be held responsible to
what happened to you later:
During my school time perhaps in the early 80’s, some of my
school mates from Aulong new village learnt Mao’shan god’s strike (神打) from
an old sorcerer. As I was told that the god’s strike mainly invoked the
presence of ghosts while the god’s invulnerability (神功)
invoked the presence of gods. Having said so, no one could be sure what
possesses a practitioner as no spirit would claim to be a ‘ghost’ anyway.
In those days, youngsters of 15 or 16-years-old would think
they could take up the whole world with their god’s strike. And, one of my
friends; Kow even believed to be possessed by monkey god in the science class and
jumped onto others’ desk causing huge commotions in the school. The monkey god
asked the science teacher for banana but the teacher passed him a shoe instead.
Consequently, the monkey went amok and grabbed the students’ workbook and then
threw at the teacher.
The school subsequently called up the local hospital and the
monkey god was subsequently being bounded into a stretcher and spent a few days
bed ridden.
Then, in order to test the powers of god’s strike, those
young ones would go to the Chinese cemetery at night to challenge those ghosts
in the cemetery. A game they used to play was to summon ghosts with an oil lamp
and a piece of white cloth. The cloth is stretched by two persons each holding
onto one end. And then an oil lamp is lit in the background. When this is done,
the kids would start chanting mantras to summon the ghosts. After a while, some
shadows would be seen on the white cloth.
Once I followed Kow’s group to the cemetery to ‘play ghosts’
(玩鬼)
and on our way back home, as we passed through a narrow mud path; many pebbles
flew at us striking our bodies and caused many bruises and swollen parts.
Interestingly, as we ran for cover; we could hear many cursing and swearing
voices around us. The Mao’shan master later warned us to behave because we have
offended the good brothers and sisters in the graveyard.
Of course, the kids never learnt. During one of the Ghost
Months, Kow was challenged to go to the grave of a deceased pregnant lady with
stillborn. He was to sit in front of the gravestone and start cursing the
pregnant lady for half-an-hour or so. If Kow has successfully completed the
challenge, we would give him $20 as reward. FYI, $20 in the 80’s was a lot of
money then.
So, right on full moon night, we sent Kow to the cemetery entrance
and let Kow went into the cemetery with me as the witness.
We arrived at the lady’s grave after 10 minutes later. Kow
sat directly in front of the tomb stone while I sat on the left side of the
grave witnessing what Kow did. Once Kow started his four letter words, I
started to take the time.
About 10 minutes or so, Kow didn’t show any signs of
tiredness; four-letter-words continued to burst out from his mouth fluently.
For once I thought had Kow be so fluent in his languages, he would have been a
lawyer by now. Then, from a distance, I saw a white mist started to take shape
in front of Kow while he continued to churn out the four-letter-words.
At some point, Kow suddenly became silent and stared at the
tomb stone in front of him. Then he yelled out horrifically and fainted in
front of the grave. At the same time, I saw the white fog transformed into the
rough shape of a lady holding her baby. The ghostly figure first looked at
fainted Kow and then she turned her face at me and gave me an eerie yet
sinister smile.
I too yelled my lungs out and ran in panic towards the gang
that was waiting at the grave entrance leaving unconscious Kow behind.
Kent caught hold of me as I ran passed him and he asked: “What
happened?”
I pointed my finger towards the darkness and said: “It’s Kow…”
Kent asked: “What about Kow? He is just right behind you…”
I turned my head and there I saw Kow was indeed right behind
me! He was with the weirdest expression since I knew him. His half angered and
half smiling face gave me the creeps.
Before the gang wanted to congratulate Kow for successfully
completed the challenge, Kow uttered some words without opening his mouth: “You
dead kid’s wraps (死仔包) disturbing my peace and scolding me four-letter-words
for nothing! You must ask your parents to make offerings and apologize in front
of my grave tomorrow morning or this kid (Kow) would accompany me to the
underworld!”
After that, Kow dropped onto the ground unconscious. We had
to carry Kow back to his home and the whole gang was being scolded again.
The next morning, our parents went to the pregnant lady’s
grave to express their apologies but Kow just wasn’t his usual self anymore.
After the incident, Kow became a little bit wacko as his words didn’t make any
sense. At times he would come to my house and talked a lot of nonsense and
after that, I have not seen Kow anymore until I shifted to Penang.
So, the moral of this story is: please use the
four-letter-words wisely or the risk is yours! Ha! Ha! Ha!
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