As a Mat Salleh who used to live in wretched Singapore – and like my late-aba, I was skeptical about such Pontianak stories, until my late-aba told me this one:

He used to know a Bomoh, who has a beautiful Malay wife, and she has a nail embedded on the top of her head, and he had even shown this to my late aba. My late-aba had bought a piece of land at Bukit Timah seven-and-a-half-kilometres in the 1950s, and had built a wooden house and a barn on it, and had planted many fruit trees, including banana trees, and he had also laid some vegetable lots and chicken pens.

On many nights, my late-aba had heard the laughter, cries and shrieks of a Pontianak that dwell in the forested areas of Bukit Timah, and this Pontianak was attracted to the banana trees that he had planted, and had visited this area near his wooden house, and after he had encountered “IT” on several occasions, my late-aba had engaged this same Bomoh to “cleanse” his residential property in Singapore.

During the rituals conducted by this Bomoh, the Pontianak had laughed and cried out these words, which had always haunted my late-aba when he was alive – Bomoh, Bomoh, Saya tak takut lah! â?” and this was repeated several times until the Bomoh used his “barang-barang” to fight this Pontianak.

My late-aba had continued to encounter this Pontianak after this “successful ritual” – but this time, whenever my late-aba encountered “IT” – this Pontianak will cry and murmur these words in fear – “Encik, Encik, – Tolong, Tolong, Saya takut lah!”

The Bomoh had given my late-aba several weapons as a precaution after the ritual, just in case “IT” appears again – and these are a kris, a long nail that has an amulet on it, and blessed salt, dried chili and dried black pepper seeds (that are replenished from time to time by the Bomoh) that are used to sprinkle around our residential property at Bukit Timah.

And one more thing, I had also encountered a Thai version of the Pontianak known as a “Maenak” a long time ago – when I had also built a small modern farm in a rural area in northern Thailand. So what really are these – Pontianaks, Maenaks, Tianaks, Kuntilanaks!?
Are they spirits, ghosts or demons!?