Of Kekabu Trees & The Likes

I was doing my work when suddenly I remembered a certain Kak Ramlah. No idea who she is/was? She's a notorious banshee back in schooldays. The stories are aplenty and varies greatly (as is the norm when tales are passed through words of mouth), but it struck fear into our 13 year old hearts like no other hantu can. So scared were we, we dared not even speak out her name, we referred to her as KR only. To tell the truth, I only dared to say out the name only a few years back. Such was the effect it had.

Oh, in case you're anticipating Kak Ramlah's story, I'm sorry. We repressed it so much I think most of us can't even remember what was it about. Anyone?

But on a related case, I remembered talking with my auntie right after watching Jangan Pandang Belakang a while back. I was telling her about the movie, when she recollected a story from her childhood. This was in the 70s, and Kg Galang was much more of a kampung than it is today. If you check out my Flickr, there's a pic of the main road leading to the kampung. In the 80s & 90s it was quite busy because it was the main road connecting Kota Bharu and KL. Since then a bypass road has taken all the traffic away and today the road would look a lot like then.

The story goes that there was this very old midwife who lived not too far away from our old family home (my grandparents and kids moved to a bigger house just before I was born). She's a very good midwife, and as is the practice (or belief) in those days, she bela something. Later when I asked my mom about it (she lived there for a while too), she remembered that lady and told similar stories to me. The stories goes that her lawn were never overgrown with weeds as every morning it will be neatly cut and her kitchen was never piled up with dirty plates as every morning it will be spick and span again. She has been seen at two places at once, doing two different things, etc but I guess no one dared to ask her the obvious.

After a while she got ill with age. She was bedridden, but ate like a famished lion. The children tried to get her to hospital but she refused. As the children lived away, there were times when she would be left alone for periods of time. Yet her house remained clean and well swept, as though she got up in the wee hours to do her household chores before resuming to be ill. She became ate and ate and ate yet got thinner and thinner by the day. The climax came right before her death when she was seen climbing the walls of her house (in your face Peter Parker!), definitely unlike a frail and sick old lady.

There was (I think there still is) a kekabu tree in front of her house, purpotedly where her 'servant' lived. Don't knwo what happened after that, though I recalled when I was very young hearing the adults talking about some disturbances originating from the tree. When I asked about it, I was told that I don't need to know.

So kids, as an ending to today's story I'll leave you with a Javanese verse:
Lingsir wengi sliramu tumeking sirno
Ojo tangi nggonmu guling
Awas jo ngetoro
Aku lagi bang wingo wingo
Jin setan kang tak utusi
Dadyo sebarang
Wojo lelayu sebet

This verse is called Gending Kuntilanak. It's sung to call one forth, good luck trying ;)