Badi Of Deer (鹿尸鬼)

The belief of the existence of 'badi' is perhaps specific to Malay culture. It is a common belief that some sacred animal carcasses or corpses are possessed by a type of spirit known as 'badi'. This badi must be removed before the carcass or corpse is taken care of or ill results will be fallen onto the persons handling carcass or corpse.

Most local hunters will perform a simple ritual after making a kill of their prays. The ritual is simply taking a piece of tree twig with leaves to sweep the animal carcass from head to tail a few times. This action though simple will save people who handle this carcass many troubles later.

I don't do hunting but I do join my friends to go into forests to hunt. We have different aims: My pals wanted to hunt for deer and wild boar while I wanted some rare herbs. Of course hunting is a dangerous game and killed by friendly firings are very common. So, I cannot wander about freely. Nowadays I seldom join my gangs to hunt because lack of freedom of movements.

My pal, Albert was an avid hunter as he used to go into forests to hunt for bats, squirrels, deers, wild boars and anything that he could find. Normally Albert are accompanied by a more experienced friend Ahmed. This time Ahmed was not around, so Albert went to hunt alone.

The luck was on Albert's side and he returned with a 50kg deer and after slaughtering it, Albert divided the deer meat to his neighbors and I was lucky enough to enjoy a portion of the fresh deer meat.

However, on the same night Albert was attacked by severe back pain coupled with high fever. He also murmured in his sleep of seeing the dead deer came to him insisting to seek revenge. Since Albert flipped flopped in his bed, his wife Mary was awaken by her hubby's violent and restless behaviors.

Having no licence to drive, Mary knocked on my door in the middle of the night asking my help to send Albert to the hospital. So I sent the couple to the district hospital and Mary decided to stay with Albert while I drove back alone.

As I drove past a mamak stall that still operates in the dead of the night, I stopped over to take a cup of hot milk tea. There I saw Ahmed was there too with his friends.

We started to chat and our conversation somehow went around Albert's sudden sickness. After hearing my story, Ahmed was quite sure that Albert was the victim of the badi of the dead deer as the symptoms were quite similar to the doing of badi.

As Ahmed was explaining, he took a bottle of mineral water and chanted some holy verses. After that he handed the water to me and said: "Ah, I see Albert has not learnt. He has forgotten to remove the badi of the deer before loading it in his truck. Give this water to him and ask him to drink some and wash his face with some water; and the rest he can add to bath water. Albert will recover very soon. No worries!"

I thanked Ahmed and returned to the hospital and handled the mineral water to Mary and asked her to do what Ahmed told me. Since Albert was then still being treated by doctor, I returned home to rest.

A few days later, I saw Albert again and he looked pretty healthy. I asked him about his condition and he replied: "Thanks for the holy water, I felt 50% better after drinking it. But the doc insisted to keep me in the hospital for observation for 1 day. Now I know why Ahmed sweeps the animal with tree branch!"

In Search Of Cintamani Snake (追寻如意宝珠蛇)

The 20ft python bit a deer with its mouth and started to roll around the deer's body...

Once I was told by my friend Ah Keat that he has at one time came across a giant snake which the locals call it as 'ular cintamani' or the 'wish fulfilling jewel snake'. The snake gave Ah Keat a snake pearl during his fasting in a cave near Kinta Valley.

After begging him for perhaps thousands of times, Ah Keat finally agreed to tell me the location but he didn't want to accompany me there. Though I wasn't convince that Ah Keat has told me the whole truth, I traveled to the cave where he said the ular cintamani is believed to have dwelled.

The said cave was located in a limestone hill near where the locals would call the 'valley of death'. It used to be a popular place for some Thai monks to meditate and stay some years back. Now the place is largely abandoned and sometimes people like me would go there to take short retreat.

According to Ah Keat's instruction, I should first burn some 'kemayan' (benzoin) to inform the cintamani snake that I have arrived so that it can come to grant me wishes. I must also made some food offerings such as bananas, biscuits and eggs as a means to show gratitude.

So I have done what was told and found myself a nice spot where I can observe movements outside of the cave. I can't remember for how long I sat in silent and as my mind started to wander about how the cintamani snake would look like and what should I say to the sacred snake. My meditation session transformed into vivid imaginations.

Time flies and soon it was already approaching 7pm as I looked at my watch. There was still bright enough to look outside... Suddenly I heard some noise near the cave entrance. Due to curiosity, I extended my neck to look outside.

Ah, it was a wild deer of some kind start eating the bananas that I put outside for the cintamani snake. Due to boredom, I stared at the deer as it looked quite contented eating the offerings. Just as I was wandering when the holy cintamani snake would make its debut, I suddenly heard the squeaking noise of the deer.

I raised up and walked a few steps to investigate. To my surprised, I saw a giant python has bitten the deer at the neck and starting to roll onto the poor deer's body and slowly squeezing it.

Then the python opened its mouth and devour the deer head down. I watched in horror and my legs just wouldn't barge. Occasionally the python smashed its body against the limestone wall perhaps in the attempt to further crush the skeleton of the deer so as to ease its swallowing.

Soon the night fell and I was trapped in the cave. At that moment, I wasn't really praying to see the cintamani snake but for the sake of my own life. Just hoped that there won't be a second python in or outside of the cave or I would be history.

Soon there were no more smashing sound outside and the environment were filled with the cacophony of insects and occasionally night birds. I still dared not move and stayed vigilant until the next morning.

On the sign of first daylight, I slowly sneak out of the cave and saw the python about 18 to 20 feet in length curved itself at the side of the entrance. Looked like it just had a meal and it has no intention on human meat. So, I rushed out to look for help.

I soon returned with some villagers and wildlife department officers and the giant python was captured and relocated. A villager told me that he believe the python was the answer of the mysterious disappearance of their polarities and cattle during the past one year or so.

To me, I was just glad that I wasn't part of that mysterious disappearance episode.

When Ah Keat asked if I have seen the cintamani snake, I first nodded my head: "Snake yes!" Then shook my head and continued: "Cintamani, NO!!"

Come and think of it, maybe the greatest gift of this cintamani snake is to let me live for a few years more...

Thai Magic Duel (泰式斗法)

Magic duel occurred in the 4th dimension. If any parties either the healer or spell caster failed to enter this dimension, then he will be on a weaker ground to compete.

Most of the curses can be taken down without too much of a problem. In normal circumstances, the spell caster will not retaliate and any entities bounced back due to the kong tao removal process shall be absorbed by animals kept by the spell caster.

Most spell casters will keep many pets such as dogs, cats, chickens, turtles and lizards as their sacrifices in the event that the curses they cast bounced back.

So in reality, there is no need to carry out magic duels. I have so far carried out two magic duels with a Thai master from Chiang Mai.

Unlike common belief, Thai magic duel occurs in the 4th dimension and there will not be too much dramatic movements to be seen as depicted by the horror movies. 

If any of the parties either spell caster or the healer failed to enter into the 4th dimension, he is deemed lost the dominance in the magic duel. The person remained in the 3rd dimension will be a sitting duck as he became the passive defender and he will not know what happened to his curses.

On the other hand, if both parties can see each other; then a real life and death fight will occur. Again, this situation is also rare.

Once I tried to help a person possessed by an extremely powerful demon sent by another master from Northern Thailand. My soul suddenly sent into the 4th dimension by Kurba Archan (grand master) and from there I could see the demonic entity clinging itself onto the back of the victim (as shown above).

There was a voice instructing me what to do. It first asked me to pull the demon off the back of the victim and throw the entity back to the spell caster who was still in meditation mode. Apparently my opponent couldn't see me as he has no awareness that I was near him.

After that the voice ordered me to take down the person's protective amulet.

As soon as I have done so, the demonic entity suddenly jumped onto its master's back and starting to bite on the person's shoulder. I could see that he was in pain and I was quickly pulled back to my altar.

When I awakened, I found myself was still in meditation mode.

The next day, the victim contacted me and told me about his dream. Very strangely too, his description matched what I have done. And more surprisingly, the person recovered within a week's time.

As to what happened to the other master, I heard he hurt himself on his right shoulder during meditation.

I performed another curse removal the same way, the other time was to remove a natural spirit known as Phi Phop.

Both cases yielded satisfactory results.

Of course, real kong tao curses are very rare these days and those who can do astral travel can be counted by fingers. Sad to say, most masters are already very old. Good news is that we do not need to worry about kong tao any more.

Kong Tao Removal (解降)

Basically, Thai 'kong' (curses) must be removed by Thai methods and it is best to be removed by the archan (master) himself. Unlike other systems, Thai curses can be very personal in that a master will add his secret formula to standard curses such as 'flying needles' and the already mentioned 'hair kong'.

Most of the Thai curses can be removed with standard kong tao removal methods given time and if the curse is discovered early. If the curse is cast for a long time, then even the master himself cannot help. Most curses can be removed except for so-called 'dead kong'.

If a 'dead kong' is cast, then the spell caster can still help during early days, but over a period of time when the damage is permanent; then only the God can intervene. 

The standard curse removal methods are:

• Rolling eggs
• Flower bath
• Coconut rituals
• A combination of the above
• Magic duel

Rolling eggs

This is the commonest way to remove a curse such as flying needles and spirit possessions. Foreign materials will present inside egg yokes. Of course, there are many methods to put a needle or dyes There is one trade secret that no one will mentioned. To be effective, the egg must be smeared with 'nam man prai' (ghost oil) and spirits are normally used to suck the curses into the egg.

Flower bath

Flower bath can further be categorized by 5 or 7 types of flower. The 5 types of flowers are for normal luck attracting purposes while the 7 types of flowers are for curse removal. Any types of fragrant flowers can be used but some prefer not to use black and white flowers.

Coconut rituals

Coconut curse rituals come in many variants as well. This type of ritual can be used to remove bad luck or to remove black curses.

Combination methods

Most masters will choose to use a combination of methods such as egg rolling and flower bath.

Magic duel

No one wanted to be in this stage. As a matter of fact, to be able to engage in magic duel both masters must have certain degree of expertise in spiritual practices and the ability to perform out-of-body travel is definitely a must. So, most of the victims either been cured or died before a magic duel takes place.

Thai kong tao is complex

In order to show the complexity of Thai kong tao, lets take a look at the 'hair of flying head' curse:

The flying head's hair is derived from the common 'hair curse' once popular in Northern Thailand. This hair kong is not difficult to cure as it only stuff a person to dead in a slow manner. Basic treatment is to use fire elemental spirits to burn out the hairs inside the victim's abdomen coupled with herbal medicine to induce diarrhea so that all residue toxins are discharged out. When the toxins are removed, the victim is given supplement to aid in his/her recovery in addition to praying to Lord Buddha for peace of mind.

Basic hair kong has very low intelligence so it will not retaliate but the enhance flying head has two intelligence: one is the flying head and the other is a ghost. The power of the spirits are fed by the banana plant and the energy of the victim. This continuous supply of energy energizes the hair to grow more rapidly.

An unwary master when tried to remove flying-head's hair will often overlooked the spiritual aspect and concentrates only on hair removal process using fire elemental spirits. The flying head will work to suppress the spirit helpers sent by the healer, while the ghost continued with its hair growing job.

So at the end of the day, the healer would ran out of energy and not only he failed to help the victim, he himself becomes the victim.

This may sound very confusing in narration, it is more confusing in actual situation.

The cure for hair of flying-head

The first step to treat this type of kong tao is to remove the power source. In this case, as long as the banana tree is growing on the grave, the spirits are consistently energized with power. So, the tree must be removed first.

Then the spiritual link between the spell caster and the spirits within the body of the victim must be severed. This can be done by out-of-body travel to the opponent's altar and remove the obstacles.

Only then the standard healing methods are applied.

Hence, I still suggest a peaceful way to the solution. First a good healer is very difficult to find, secondly the black magician only looks for money and not to take life.

Ghost Of Slaughtered Man (他杀鬼)

According to Aminah, the ghost of slaughtered person or 'hantu orang mati dibunuh' only seeks revenge on the person who killed him/her. The definition of 'slaughtered person' also includes the one killed by black magic such as 'santau'. Even so, the materialization of slaughtered ghost can be disturbing to others as it ransack to seek out its killer.

As a black magician, Aminah has a way to deter her victim's soul from seeking revenge. This knowledge was said to have passed down from her grandma through her mother.

There are two methods in dealing with a ghost of slaughtered: the passive and active.

A quite common passive method is to hang buffalo horns that are wrapped with yellow or red cloth on wall then below the horns 7 pieces of white candles should be burnt for 7 nights after the victim is killed. In addition to the buffalo horns, the killer must also prepare sumptuous meal offerings to the deceased as an apologetic act.

As a precautionary act, fine sands should empowered with prayers should be spread around the killer's house to prevent the slaughtered ghost from entering the killer's house.

The killer is also advised to wash hands with water soaked with raw rice. His/her eye brows, chest and soles should also be smeared with charcoal for 7 days.

Such passive precautions are suitable to be used by a magician and common folks alike.

The active method on the other hand can only be used by a bomoh or shaman himself/herself. 

Again, there are two ways to dealt with slaughtered ghosts. One is to capture the ghost into a bottle and throw it into a river. The other one is already mentioned, to summon the slaughtered ghost as a spirit servant.

Of course, the later method will increase the agony of the slaughtered ghost. Such a stressed situation is neither good to the magician nor the ghost. Hence a more 'humane' method is just to captured the spirit into a bottle and does a 'sink test' in the river.

At the mean time, the family members of the deceased is forbidden to have fun (naturally) within the 7 days mourning period so that the ghost will not feel agitated. The personal belongings of the deceased are best to be discarded because it is generally believed that the slaughtered ghost will come to reclaim his/her items.

Just a side note, there is a belief that coins if found inside the pocket of a slaughtered person can attract fishes. So anyone who bring along such a coin to fish, he/she is bound to have a good harvest.

Minyak Dagu (马来尸油)

Hurry! Prop its head while I burn its chin for oil...

Background

While people are afraid of corpses, corpse oils are one the most sought after items among all of blog visitors. Basically only two magical systems make use of corpse oil: the Malay magic and Thai magic. Malay magic is already in its extinction due to severe governmental control, so only Thai magic retained such practices thanks to the support of lustful folks out there.

The main ingredient is the corpse. Traditionally, an ideal corpse is that of a pregnant mother with stillborn, then secondly the young ones died in tragic circumstances. Nowadays even dead babies are used to make oils. To some extent, animal carcass also acceptable. Of course, there are many fake ones too.

Perhaps it is fair to say the proliferation of ingredients depends on their availability. It seems now that one can possibly find flying dead babies by simply walking under flats or even in the trash bins, or in the bush; the potential coming back of cheap corpse oil is great.

Outsiders may just think corpse oil as just corpse oil, insiders think otherwise. Corpse oils can be categorized into old tradition, new tradition or alternatives. This remains as 'commercial trade secrets' that have never been exposed until now.

I have had some experiences with the making of Malay and Thai corpse oils but I refused to be part of post-modern corpse oil making. Of course, all those were things of the past to me.

Perhaps let us just skim over variants of corpse oils though I know I have repeated myself many times:

Minyak dagu (chin oil)

Personally speaking, minyak dagu of Malay magic is the most authentic form of corpse oil that has ever been produced. The oil is produced by burning the chin of a corpse with a piece of burning white candle. Only a very small quantity of oil is produced on each corpse hence its rarity.

The best corpse is those of the pregnant woman with stillborn and secondly the single slaughtered. Babies are definitely out of the question.

Unlike common belief, chin oil cannot be transported across state boundaries as it is believed that the guardian spirits of a state will prevent the transportation of chin oil. Also chin oil is normally stored underground or else the owner may suffered lightning strike.

The making of minyak dagu...

Not long after the conjuration of the said slaughtered young ghost, Aminah contacted me again for another mission...

This time a pregnant lady has died during giving birth and she was just buried in the afternoon. Aminah waited for this golden opportunity for a very long time for she wanted some notorious 'chin oil'.

I didn't like the idea but as I have said 'curiosity kills the cat'; I also wanted to have a glimpse of how minyak dagu is made. And suddenly I found myself in front of Aminah's house. There was another gentleman, Ali who was Aminah's cousin.

It would be sheer labor work this time for the men would be in charge of digging while Aminah would perform the chin burning and oil collecting work.

Although the security around graveyards were not as stringent before compare to these days, we must still be careful and acted fast.

Since the path to the graveyard is narrow, we traveled on two bikes. 

Another reason that we need to act fast is that dead bodies decay very fast in hot and moist tropical climate. This also depends on the condition of the corpse. In this case, the pregnant lady's corpse would rod and smell bloody bad too...

So said, we arrived at the destination around 11pm. The digging started almost instantly. Aminah became the lookout for caretakers or occasional passerby. While Ali and I became the diggers.

Since it was a new grave, it wasn't difficult to dig. We already reached the plank that covered the body after 20 minutes or so.

Once the plank was lifted, a smack of pungent decaying flesh smell coupled with bloody smell immediately filled our lungs. We started to vomit but Aminah shouted us to be hurry.

So we tied the corpse onto the plank and used a piece of rope to lift it up for Aminah to do her job. 

With me propping up the head of the corpse, Aminah started to burn its chin with burning white candle. After a while only half bottle of liquid was collected. None of us talked too much during the process.

After Aminah was satisfied, we again lowered the corpse back to the grave and refilled the grave.

Luckily no one was at the graveyard that night...

Since the chin oil collected was less than 3 ml, I decided not to have any. I supposed Aminah would not part with her precious commodity. So I compromised and asked her a few questions to clarify my doubt:

"Why don't you collect oils from private parts too?"  I asked.

"It will be too messy not to mention dangerous. Do you want to bring the corpse to your house to process?" Aminah reversed the question back.

That was the only time I followed Aminah to do her job. I am not sure if she continued with her minyak dagu production. What I know is that such a pure form of minyak dagu would fetch a very high price in open market...

Single Slaughtered Ghost (未婚凶死鬼)

Item for conjuring single slaughtered ghost: a piece of palm leaf with white candles, yellow glutenous rice, betel nut and lea, tobacco, benzoin resins and a palm flower stalk.

While I am not sure if Aminah has turned into a weretiger, at the meantime I knew that she also practised to be a bomoh. Her line of Malay magic is quite similar to old Thai magic as both system use almost the same setup and ingredients.

It is an open secret that the ghost of single slaughtered person is the prime commodity for any of the black magicians out there: From Far East to Africa collectively speaking.

One day, a villager in the kampung was killed in a gangster fight. Both Aminah and I visited the funeral service and the graveyard. Aminah suddenly pulled me aside and asked if I was willing to do her a favor.

I thought it was a little odd as I was not her only friend in the village. In a state of hesitation, I asked: "What are you up to?"

"I want to do a ritual tonight but I cannot bring so many stuffs with me. I need your help since you have a bike and you are not local!" Aminah whispered.

"Okay Minah. Promised you will not turn into a tiger and devour me alive." I shrugged. Of course, I was also curious to see Aminah's secret ritual. After all outsiders hardly have a chance to get a glimpse of Malay magic in action that I can promise you. Although people said 'curiosity kills the cat', I still took a stab with a precaution. I told my family members that in case I did not return the next morning, do something. One thing for sure, I cannot afford to be careless.

I went to Aminah's place at about 6pm as promised. She immediately hopped onto the backseat with her stuffs and off we went to the graveyard.

The place was still clear enough and as it was approaching Maghrib, no one would wander about and the place looked pretty safe.

After some search, we finally found the new grave. My job was temporarily done and I sat aside to see Aminah in action: she laid down all her items in front of the tombstone. Among the items are a piece of palm leave stem, foods and candles. After that, she burned some benzoin resin and thick smoke immediately produced and the odor filled the air.

Then, Aminah asked me to watch out for any movements on the grave. After about 20 minutes or so, I saw black smoke rose from the grave and I hinted Aminah. She nodded her head and she took up the palm flower and struck onto the tombstone while chanting: 

"Oh you poor single slaughtered ghost, come to your master. You belonged to me now. I will feed you but you must serve me well..."

The black smoke was seen moved from left to right as if wanted to escape but finally stay still and gradually moved towards Aminah. 

At this juncture, Aminah opened a bottle filled with some oil and put it on the ground in front of her. The black smoke was seen slowly entered into the bottle and Aminah quickly close the bottle with its cover.

We hurriedly returned home as being caught red handed would mean trouble.

I wasn't too interested with the ghost but I was more interested in the oil in the bottle. After some bugging, she finally said: "Corpse oil."

And that would be our next project...

Her Weretiger Grandmother (她的祖母是人虎)

This story is told by Aminah, a friend who believed herself is from a bloodline of weretigers. In Malay belief, weretiger is just like werewolf in Western culture but obviously much, much powerful. I have not come across one as yet but here is the story:

My grandma was a midwife in my village. She was the only midwife in my kampung before a new government sponsored clinic was setup. Other than that. villagers also sough after the services of two other bomohs.

However, it has been a taboo that grandma cannot become her daughter's midwife somehow. Once my mother was pregnant and about to give labor, my father was on his way to other kampung to fetch another midwife, Mak Din but the midwife has not arrived yet, grandma was forced to take care of my mother temporary.

Mother was in pain and grandma massaged my mother's stomach and said: "Indeed it is time."
It was raining heavily, the other midwife still not in sight.

Looks like grandma was forced to break her own taboo. As usual, such urgent matter cannot be avoided. Like it or not, grandma has to assist in the delivery process. This is how I was born.
As soon as I was born, grandma felt bewildered as I didn't cry as other babies do. Both of my arms were held together as if in prayer's position and they seemed to be bonded together.

It was during this time that the midwife of next kampong arrived. She asked: "Who was the midwife?"

Grandma replied in a weak manner: "I was. I have broken my taboo and I must leave this place or big problems will be fallen to them..."

Then father proceed to get one of the bomohs, Pat Mat from the village and about one hour later, both of them arrived.

At this moment, Pak Mat looked at my grandma and said: "You better make your move if you don't want to hurt anyone."

Grandmother nodded and said in a very low voice: "I shall make my move tomorrow."

Then Pak Mat looked at me and recited some prayers while Mak Din used some herbal water to wash my hand and body. It took her a long while to part my hands. 

After staying in my house for an hour or so, both Pak Mat and Mak Din excused themselves. As my father escorted them out, Mak Din suddenly said: "May peace be with your family, your child has been appointed as heir of your in-law's knowledge. Take very well care of her. She will come back for the child when she has grown up..."

My life has been very peaceful until fairly recently after a hiking trip to Gunung Ledang... I started to hear tiger's roar at night. In one of my strange dreams, I saw a tiger came to me greeted me as 'cucu' (grandchild). Perhaps it was my grandmother? Only time will tell.

First Encounter With Jembalang Tanah (首遇地妖)

Jembalang tanah or otherwise known as 'earth gnome' is believed to be watcher of an area. It is believed that earth gnome is originated from urine or umbilical cord of a baby buried in the jungle. 

Earth gnome is normally passive type of spirit and like a snake, it will only strike when provoked. I have learnt this the hard way.

Other than magic, my other hobby is to ransacking local forests for herbal medicine. There are many dangers in the jungle so I will only wear army boots when entering jungle at least boots provide me with protection from poisonous creatures such as snakes. The other danger is that I must be careful of ground hornet hives. A sting from one hornet can be lethal. Other than that, I was quite well protected... Or was I?

Once after spending a whole day with great harvest, I returned home happily but to find my feet started to swell during the night. At first I thought my feet might have been stung by giant ants or something like that. But on further inspection, I couldn't find any bitten marks.

I went to consult a doctor and he too couldn't find any fault. With an antibiotic injection and some anti-inflammatory creams; I was let home.

A week later, my old pal; Pak Samat came to visit me as I have ordered some natural honey from him. When he knocked on my door, I staggered to greet him.

He immediately noticed that my paces looked odd and once seated he asked: "What happened to your feet, my friend?"

I shrugged and answered: "Beats me Pak. It has been one week and my condition has not changed."

Pak Samad looked at my still swollen feet and then he smiled: "Ah, I can see you went to the anthill in the Trong forest."

"How did you know?" I was a little surprised.

"Simple, you are not the first one to suffer this. My son also faced something similar." Pak Samad said in slumber.

"This is the work of jembalang tanah (earth gnome) guarding that area. You must have stepped into his home! Did you see a snake?" He asked.

"As a matter of fact, yes. There was a black cobra around." I began to feel I was in some kind of deep shit.

"Give me a chicken egg." Pak Samad demanded.

I staggered my way to the kitchen and handed him an egg. Pak Samad took the egg and then use the egg to roll on my feet a few times and then broke the egg shell into a bowl.

It was a surprise to see a snake like pattern inside the egg yoke. After that Pak Samad said: "You are basically okay. I have removed the culprit and remember to make some offering when you return to that place."

True enough, a few hours after Pak Samad left; my feet started to deflate as if a balloon loosing air. I recovered fully the next morning.

That was some painful and interesting experience to share.

 

Learning Santau 4: Evil Bomoh (山道 4：邪巫)

After the seemingly innocent hantu raya was somewhat put under control. I rested for the night as I was very tired.

Just as I was flipping and flopping in my bed thinking what to do with the hantu raya since it was apparently sent by the evil bomoh for taking control of me; I heard a female voice: "Leave it to me..."

I somehow dozed off and had a very strange dream. In that dream I dreamed of entering the bomoh's house and saw he was having sex with a very pretty lady. I entered the house but the bomoh didn't notice my presence as he was too engaged with the lady.

Then a voice guided me to open a wooden chest. I opened the chest cover and saw a cat hiding in the chest. Then the voice instructed me to kill the cat and I did. The blood spilled all over the floor. At the same time, the bomoh shouted in agony.

I was somehow awakened by the bomoh's agonizing painful shriek and it was already 9 a.m. So I hurriedly cleaned myself and went down the hotel to have my breakfast.

My handy rang and it was the bomoh again. This time he spoke in a commanding tone: "Come to me with the hantu (ghost) at once at the place we met last night!"

Since I was about to check out from the hotel and return to Ipoh, I took a detour to see what the bomoh was up to.

When the bomoh saw me, he commanded me: "Come! Give me whatever money you have with you!"

I thought I would play along with the bomoh, so I handed to him MYR36 and said: "Grandpa, this is what I have now..."

He took the money and gave me a grim stare then said: "You are under my child's (hantu raya) control and I have put some santau inside your coffee last night. You must obey me... Go to a ATM to draw MYR1000 for me now..."

Now I realized that the old man thought I was being possessed and control by his hantu raya spirit. No wonder why the hantu raya acted very strangely last night. Had it not because of my ring, I would already be a goner!

At this point, I have no intention of entanglement with him, so I cleared my throat and raised my voice: "Hey grandpa, did you enjoy your sex with a beautiful lady last night?"

Sensing something was wrong, the bomoh jumped up from his comfortable chair and his facial expression changed to shock: "How did you know that I was having wet dream? Are you trying to be funny? I will let you have a taste of my santau!"

The old man immediately started to chant but nothing happened... It was my turn to laugh: "Ha! Ha! Ha! I thought you can do better grandpa! You really disappointed me!!"

Realizing that his charms did not work on me, the old bomoh started to plead: "Let me go young man? I am old and will die soon..."

"As you wished~" 

A disembodied yet familiar female voice came from middle of the air, and the old man quickly stood up and ran out.

Frankly, I was as astonished as the evil bomoh. All this while I have never experienced with this type of vivid dream that coincided with actual life event. Perhaps my soul did travel out of body last night to save my body?

A few weeks later, when I visited Teluk Intan again; I saw the old bomoh sat in the corner of local wet market. This time his face was full of sores. Perhaps this was the work of his servitor spirits who sought revenge against its master.

I have no further information about this evil bomoh after the last encounter but I am sure he has had his punishment this life; perhaps waiting for the punishment during the end of the world.

Up until now, I could have sworn that it was Lilith that has saved me but it remained silent ever since.

That was my experience with evil bomoh. Of course, ever since Mona Fendy's case in 1993, local bomohs started to be suppressed by the government and religious bodies. If anyone admits to be a bomoh today, he would receive a cold shoulder. As a matter of fact, it is safer to stay away from any bomohs. Please take my words for it and you will not be sorry.

Learning Santau 3: Hantu Raya (山道3：鬼仆)

Soon it has passed 40 days waiting. We were supposed to meet the old bomoh in Teluk Intan. Since Ah Keat has sought his revenge on his ex, and that he wasn't too interested in practising the art of 'hantu raya' (big/wandering ghost); I went to see the bomoh instead. 
My purpose was also to get the santau material buried under the ground for 40 days.

Since I went alone, and for safety reasons; I decided to ask the bomoh to come out to meet me in a more civilized location in Teluk Intan. After some negotiation, the bomoh finally agreed to come out with a price of MYR1000. I agreed to his request as I wanted to see what this old man was up to.

So we met in a coffee shop just outskirt of the town at night as requested by the bomoh.

I was late for the appointment as I wasn't very familiar with the place and the bomoh was already there. When he saw me, he extended his right hand to me and at first I thought he wanted to shake hand... Instead he said: "MYR1000 for one hantu raya servant!"

A little stunned by his action initially, but I regained my calmness and said: "Tok (Grandpa), can you first show me my hantu raya please?"

The old man gave me a scornful and arrogant stare then he said: "Sit down grandchild, and I will show you..."

He took out a dark bottle and placed it in front of him and then a ping-pong ball was then put in front of me. Then he commanded: "My child, come to papa!"

Strange as it was, the ping-pong ball slowly moved toward the old bomoh. And to make me more confident, he then ordered the ball to move towards me; and it did.

Though a little disbelieved, I had to admit that something made the ball roll as commanded. Still unsatisfied, I asked the old man: "I thought I should summon it myself? And where is my santau material?"

The bomoh gave me a cunning stare that I know he was up to no good. After silent for a moment he said: "That would be another MYR360!"

I paid a total of MYR1360 to the old man and he taught me some methods of taking care of the hantu raya; and reminded me to give it a name.

It was already late when I bade farewell to the bomoh and since it was too late to drive home, I stayed in a budget hotel nearby.

After taking a shower, I took out the bottle and slowly inspect it. My instinct told me that someone was watching me and I raised my head and saw a tall hairy figure stood in front of me... It started to repeat: "Narong (small boy)... Narong... Narong..."

The mysterious figure was full of hostility and it slowly approached me. The atmospheric pressure within the room gradually increased and I felt difficult to breathe...

In a state of panic, I took out the oath bound ring of Lilith and pointed the ring towards the hairy creature. It started to retreat and then transformed into a blob of black smoke before vanished into thin air.

Soon, the room condition returned to normal.

Perhaps the creature was a hantu raya sent by the old man for some purposes and we shall see later. One thing for sure is that Middle Eastern spiritual entities are certainly much superior than the Asian ones...

Learning Santau 2: Revenge (山道2：报复)

Ah Keat's ex-grilfriend jilted him for a manager in the factory. The couple was to marry soon and that caused Ah Keat to be heart broken. Love transformed into hatred and he vowed revenge. So, an old Bomoh gave him a bottle of santau poison and taught him the arts of santau making...

While waiting to see the old shaman again, Ah Keat decided to let his ex-girl a taste of this deadly poison. One night he dated his ex by the name Lily (not real name) to have dinner and congratulated her for the forthcoming wedding.

Later, I was told by Ah Keat that he has put some of santau material in Lily's food when she visited washroom. And we will just have to wait and see if anything happened to Lily. The old man said that santau normally takes effect within 7 days after entered a victim's body.

Although I didn't like what Ah Keat did, on the other hand; I  also dislike Lily as she was the company secretary and by the fact that Lily was quite arrogant towards blue collar workers; so she deserved a lesson too I thought. Besides, I can't stop Ah Keat for he will find any means to get his revenge. Needless to say that I was eager to know the effect of santau.

Since Lily was the secretary and her place was just outside of the manager's office, I purposely took a detour to the administrative office just to look at Lily's 'progress'.

Nothing happened for the first 2 days or so. On the 3rd day, Lily's face looked a little swollen with darker than normal eye sockets. She also coughed quite often too. I didn't see Lily on the 4th day and beyond so I purposely asked the financial controller about Lily. She said Lily was on medical leaves. 

Later I heard from Ah Keat who had visited Lily that Lily started to cough blood starting from 3rd day. Then she started to act crazy and she even killed her neighbor's chickens by severing their head and drank the blood.

News of Lily became crazy spread like wild fire in the community. Many people thought Lily was suffering from black magic and her parents were faithful Christians so they sent Lily to the church for exorcism.

The condition of Lily flip-flops for about 3 years and finally recovered after countless of prayers and blessing ceremonies. Though Lily kept her life, she was not really herself anymore. One thing for sure, Lily looked like a plump middle aged lady even though she was in her late 20's. Her manager fiance has also left her as he thought Lily has become insane.

Once I asked if Ah Keat would repeat his action, he said probably not because santau once released, there is no known effective cure. Even after the victim is cured, he/she will either lost his/her golden opportunities in life.

Before I left the company, I heard Lily was engaging in clerical services. And she remained single until today. That was what I heard from Ah Keat when I bumped into him in Ipoh recently.

Learning Santau 1 (学习山道1)

Santau is a type of poisoning method that makes use of spirits to transmit. The notorious 'hantu raya' (giant wild spirit) is most commonly associated with santau. The Indochinese 'gu' (蛊) is closely related with santau.

In earlier years, santau is the most feared Malay black magic in Malay Archipelago as anyone who become the victim of santau will surely meet their doom. Santau is so lethal that even some santau masters suffered from the very poison they made.

So said, stantu masters have no worry about lacking customers for some unknown reasons. Luckily, the forbidden art of santau is no longer in proliferation and only a handful of bomohs (shaman) have mastered this deadly art. At least, I have not heard any recent cases of santau poisoning being reported...

For a pretty long period of time, when I was working in Ipoh; I was hooked to mysterious Malay magic. Another friend of mine too whose hometown is in Teluk Intan, a small town in downstream of Perak River also very much into the practices of Malay Magic.

Ah Keat was my colleague and he was already quite advanced in his Malay Magic study when I knew him. He used to meditate for days in the middle of the jungle and said to have a magic pearl given to him by a giant serpent.

One day, Ah Keat pulled me aside after work and asked if I would be interested in learning the mysterious santau. I was a little surprised on his abrupt attitude change because I thought I have begged him for many times to bring me to his master but only received a cold shoulder.

Apparently this time is different because Ah Keat need to travel to an isolated Kampong to visit a infamous santau master but he lacked funding. The master requested MYR2000 for teaching santau. Hmm... MYR2000 was quite a big sum during that time, so Ah Keat wanted someone to split the bill.

I agreed but was curious why he was so interested in Santau. So I threatened Ah Keat that if he didn't tell me the reason behind his intention, then I will not take part in his seemingly deadly expedition.

Finally Ah Keat gave way under pressure and it transpired that Ah Keat's girlfriend has jilted him for our company manager. And the couple was scheduled to marry soon. Ah Keat wanted to 'teach them a lesson' that they will not forget. Though I didn't condole with his intention, I was interested to learn this forbidden art.

We traveled to Teluk Intan first to Ah Keat's place and then proceeded toward the kampong where the black magician lived.

After travelling for one hour or so through muddy path and until the trail became too narrow for my car, we continued to walk for another half an hour or so and arrived in front of a small attap hut.

An old Malay grandpa came out from the hut and hinted us to come in quickly. So we hurriedly in and as soon as we sat on the floor, the old man reached out his hand to demand for payment. And Ah Keat gave him the money.

The grandpa passed a bottle filled with black liquid to Ah Keat and asked him to add some to his ex-girlfriend's food with some mantra. 

After the initial transaction, the grandpa asked us to write down his instructions of making santau and asked us to return to him a week later with all the ingredients he wanted. Grandpa said that the best time to make santau is on a Thursday night, preferably during full moon.

Happily we returned to Ipoh and after gathered materials such as florescence tube, caterpillars, bamboo fur, betel nuts and etc. And soon it was time to visit the old man again.

We were in luck as it was full moon that Thursday night, so said the grandpa. We again entered the old attap hut and all windows and huts were quickly fastened. The old man said that he didn't want Kampong folks to know what we were doing.

We sat around some offering ingredients like burning benzoin resins, betel nuts and leaves, tobaccos, roast chicken and yellow sticky rice. The ingredients are very similar to those normally used in Thai magic come and think of it.

I was instructed to break those ingredients into pieces and then pounded them into powder the old man started to fall into trance and called upon his hantu raya assistant: "Oh, my child, the formidable hantu raya, come and empower this ingredients into deadly santau for my grandsons..."

The chanting lasted for about 20 minutes and then the santau is said to be readied. It is then poured into a bottle and sealed. We were again instructed to bury all the offering materials into ground. The santau must stay underground for 40 days so Ah Keat and I must again return home.

This time the old bomoh said that he will teach us how to obtain a hantu raya spirit servant but with extra fees. Of course, that is another long story to tell...

Wanna Be A Bomoh (要做巫师)

The peak of the craze of Malay magic was in the mid of 80's following the murder of a politician, Mazlan by Mona Fandey, a bomoh or a local shaman in 1993. After that, magical things especially among Muslim Malays were suppressed and discouraged until extinction today. Perhaps there are still practitioners around hiding somewhere but no one dares to talk about magic openly in Malaysia anymore. At least the once feared magic becomes the sole proprietor or silver screens.

I too were once mesmerized by the powerful world of Malay magic as there were many silat (Malay martial arts) exponents exhibiting extraordinary invulnerability skills such as jumping from a 5 floor building, bathing with boiling oil and hanging on a tree branch without obvious injuries. A top silat master is said to be able to be buried alive 6 feet under the ground for 3 days! Some of these tricks were later debunked by some practitioners with a fee *SIGH*!

In the school I was in, One of my Malay friends, Jeffrey told me that the best bomoh was in Kuala Kangsar, the royal town of the State of Perak. He asked me to go to Sayong and seek a bomoh who stayed beside a tall tree.

With this hint, I happily went to Sayong which is a small town beside the Perak River. After some efforts in searching and asking, I finally found the said old lady. She was about 70 years old then.

The old bomoh was sweeping floor in front of her house and when I approached her, she suddenly said: "Peace be upon you! My grandchild, what took you so long? I have been waiting for you."

Though shocked, I carefully approached her and responded to the greeting: "May peace be upon you too, grandma!"

The old bomoh invited me to go into her house and served me tea. Then I conveyed my intention of learning the art of bomoh. The old bomoh hesitated for a moment and said: "My grandchild, you cannot stay here for too long. People dislike me teaching magic to others. But I can teach you the method..."

I was a little disappointed and the bomoh seemed to have read my mind, she smiled and continued: "Don't worry. I will give you one of my keris, a 'ketam' wood staff and a prayer bead. You can go to a cave in Padang Rengas, look for a big boulder and meditate in front of it. Then someone will guide you..."

I thanked the old bomoh and followed her instructions. True enough, I did see many people wearing white came to me. Later, Jeffery told me that the ones I saw in the cave are what Malays call 'orang bunian' or literary 'hidden people'.

A few years later, another friend of mine asked me to go to a forsaken cemetery to meditate. It is believed that the grave was that of a very powerful bomoh.

We went to the grave at dusk and meditated in front of it. I was taught to imagine that I was peddling a sampan in the middle of an ocean repeatedly until an image appeared in front of me.

True enough, I saw an island in the middle of the ocean and an old man greeted me on the shore. He taught me some magic rituals that I have written down. Unfortunately I lost my notebook when I moved house some time ago.

Yet a few more years later when I was working in a factory in Ipoh. Another friend of mine wanted to learn 'santau' which is a form of poisoning with the help of 'hantu raya' (giant spirit which is about 12 feet tall).

According to my revenge seeking pal, the best santau practitioners are hidden in downstream of Perak River, which is near Teluk Intan, a town located in Hilir Perak District. So, we proceeded with another witch hunt.

We did find a santau practitioner and learnt up the tricks. I don't know if my friend has used it on his ex-girlfriend and his rival in love as I got an job offer and moved to Penang soon. I have not tested my santau however. Perhaps I will never need to use it.

Wondering if my quest of Malay magic is over? Perhaps. I just dreamed of the old bomoh who gave me her keris last night. She asked me to visit her soon. Maybe this is another beginning of yet another magic adventure.