"The following series of events actually happened:--A Malay named Panda Tambong undertook, against the advice of his friends, to fell one of the Toh Allong trees, and he almost immediately afterwards was taken ill with fever, and died in a few weeks' time. Shortly after this some men were sitting plaiting ataps [362] under the shade of another of these ill-omened trees, when, without any warning, a large branch fell down, breaking the arm of one man, and more or less injuring two others. There was not a breath of wind at the time, or anything else likely to determine the fall of the branch. After this it was decided to have the tree felled, as there were coolie houses nearly under it. There was great difficulty in getting any one to fell it. Eventually a Penang Malay undertook the job, but stipulated that a Pawang, or sorcerer, should be employed to drive away the demons first. The Pawang hung pieces of white and red cloth on sticks round the tree, burnt incense in the little contrivances made of the split leaf-stalks of the bertam palm, used by the Malays for that purpose, cut off the heads of two white fowls, sprinkled the blood over the trunk, and in the midst of many incantations the tree was felled without any mishap; but, strange to say, the Pawang, who was a haji [363] and a slave-debtor of the Toh Puan Halimah, died about nine months afterwards." [364] There appears to be very little reason to doubt that the word Tualang ('Toh Alang or Sialang) is the name not of a particular species of tree, but rather the generic name of all trees in which wild bees have built their nests, so that in reality it simply means a "Bee-Tree." I have not yet succeeded in obtaining any of the Malay charms used by the collectors of these bees' nests, except such as are used by Sakais under Malay influence on the Selangor coast, the Sakais being most usually the collectors. Some of these latter, however, were pure Malay charms, and may perhaps be considered, in the absence of charms collected from Malays, as evidence of at least secondary importance. One of these charms commences as follows:-- "Here is the Peeling-knife, the knife with the long handle, Stuck into the buttress of a Pulai-Tree." [365] And another, which is almost word for word the same, as follows:-- "Here is the Peeling-knife, the knife with the long handle, With which to stab (lit. peck at) the buttress of the Pulai-Tree." [366] It will be noticed that both refer to the Pulai-tree by name, and not to the Tualang. The footnote which I here quote with reference to the customs of Siak is, almost word for word, equally true of the Bee-Trees in Selangor. [367] Other haunted trees (pokok berhantu) are the Jawi-jawi, the Jelotong, and Berombong, of which the following tradition will perhaps suffice:--