The "Jins" or "Genii," generally speaking, form a very extensive class of quite subordinate divinities, godlings, or spirits, whose place in Malay mythology is clearly due, whether directly or indirectly, to Muhammadan influences, but who may be most conveniently treated here as affording a sort of connecting link between gods and ghosts. There has, it would appear, been a strong tendency on the part of the Malays to identify these imported spirits with the spirits of their older (Hindu) religion, but the only Genie who really rises to the level of one of the great Hindu divinities is the Black King of the Genii (Sang Gala [166] Raja, or Sa-Raja Jin), who appears at times a manifestation of Shiva Batara Guru, who is confounded with the destructive side of Shiva, i.e. Kala. This at least would appear to be the only theory on which we could explain the use of many of the epithets or attributes assigned to the King of the Genii, who is at one time called "the one and only God"; at another, "Bentara (i.e. Batara), Guru, the Genie that was from the beginning," and at another, "the Land Demon, the Black Batara Guru," etc. The following is a description of this, the mightiest of the Genii:-- Peace be with you! Ho, Black Genie with the Black Liver, Black Heart and Black Lungs, Black Spleen and tusk-like Teeth, Scarlet Breast and body-hairs inverted, And with only a single bone. [167] So far as can be made out from the meagre evidence obtainable, the spirit thus described is identifiable with the Black King of Genii, who dwells in the Heart of the Earth, and whose bride, Sang Gadin (or Gading), presented him with seven strapping Black Genii as children. [168] Altogether there are one hundred and ninety of these (Black?) Genii--more strictly, perhaps, one hundred and ninety-three, which coincides curiously with the number of "Mischiefs" (Badi), which reside in "all living things." The resemblance, I may add, does not end here; for though the Genii may do good, and the "Badi" do not, both are considered able to do infinite harm to mortals, and both make choice of the same kind of dwelling-places, such as hollows in the hills, solitary patches of primeval forest, dead parasites on trees, etc. etc. As to the origin of these Genii, one magician told me that all "Jins" came from the country "Ban Ujan," which may possibly be Persia; [169] other magicians, however, variously derive them from the dissolution of various parts of the anatomy of the great snake "Sakatimuna," of the "First Great Failure" to make man's image (at the creation of man); from the drops of blood which spirted up to heaven when the first twins, Abel and Cain (in the Malay version Habil and Kabil) bit their thumbs; from the big cocoa-nut monkey or baboon (berok besar), and so on.