To prevent a stillborn child from becoming a Pontianak the corpse is treated in the same way as that of the mother, i.e. a hen's egg is put under each armpit, a needle in the palm of each hand, and (probably) glass beads or some simple equivalent in its mouth. The charm which is used on this occasion will be found in the Appendix. The Peenanggalan is a sort of monstrous vampire which delights in sucking the blood of children. The story goes that once upon a time a woman was sitting, to perform a religious penance (dudok bertapa), in one of the large wooden vats which are used by the Malays for holding the vinegar made by drawing off the sap of the thatch-palm (menyadap nipah). Quite unexpectedly a man came in, and finding her sitting in the vat, asked her, "What are you doing there?" To this the woman replied, "What business have you to ask?" but being very much startled she attempted to escape, and in the excitement of the moment, kicked her own chin with such force that the skin split round her neck, and her head (with the sac of the stomach depending from it) actually became separated from the trunk, and flew off to perch upon the nearest tree. Ever since then she has existed as a spirit of evil, sitting on the roof-tree whinnying (mengilai) whenever a child is born in the house, or trying to force her way up through the floor on which the child lies, in order to drink its blood. [546] The only two spirits of this class which now remain are the Polong and the Pelesit, and these, as I have said, partake to a great extent of the character of familiar spirits or bottle imps, and are by no means confined to a single "rôle" as the preceding ones have been. The Polong resembles an exceedingly diminutive female figure or mannikin, being in point of size about as big as the top joint of the little finger. It will fly through the air to wherever it is told to go, but is always preceded by its pet or plaything (pemainan), the Pelesit, which, as has already been said, appears to be a species of house-cricket. Whenever the Polong wishes to enter (di-rasoki) a new victim, it sends the Pelesit on before it, and as soon as the latter, "flying in a headlong fashion (menelentang menjerongkong)," has entered its victim's body, which it usually does tail-foremost, and begins to chirp, the Polong follows. It is generally hidden away outside the house by its owner (Jinjangan), and fed with blood pricked from the finger. The description usually given of a Polong tallies curiously with the Malay definition of the soul. [547]