Page 214 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES
as you stand there in the brilliance of the moonlight,
you will see that you have drawn your shadow into
yourself, and your body will never again cast a
shade. Go home and in the night, whether sleeping
or waking, the form of a child will appear before
you and put out its tongue ; that seize and it will
remain while the rest of the child disappears. In
a little while the tongue will turn into something
that breathes, a small animal, reptile or insect, and
when you see the creature has life put it in a bottle
and the pelsit is yours."
It sounds easy enough, and one is not surprised
to hear that everyone in Kedah, who is anybody,
keeps a pelsit.
the female at
Langsmor, familiar, differs hardly
all from the bdjang except that she is a little more
when under the control of a he
baneful, and, man,
sometimes becomes the victim of her attractions,
and she will even bear him elfin children.
It is all very well for the Kedah ladies to sacrifice
their shadows to obtain possession of a pelsit, leaders
must be in the fashion at cost ; but
of society any
there are plenty of people living in Perak who have
seen more than one ancient Malay dame taken out
into the river, and, despite her protestations, her
have watched her, with hands
tears and entreaties,
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