Burong Srabi — also Burong Seurabi, Srabi Tanjong, or simply Burong Tanjong — is in Achehnese popular superstition the most dreaded of all the burongs, the female spirits that prey upon pregnant women and women in childbed. Her tomb is situated in gampong Tanjong (mukim of Pagaraye), close to the capital of Acheh, and is reverently visited by mothers who have vowed to “fulfil their vow at the tomb of their grandmother” (ja peu-theu’ch kaoy ba jeurat ne) — the euphemistic formula by which the ill-omened burong is politely addressed.
Origin legend
The proper name of the woman who, after death, was changed into this monster, appears to have been Rabiah (abbreviated in Srabi or Si Rabi). She is said to have been the daughter of a religious teacher, but in spite of the pious lessons and strict discipline of her father, she was seduced into an intrigue. When she had been some time pregnant, her lover induced her to fly with him to the West Coast. They dropped down the river in a boat, but before they reached the open sea the man slew his paramour and, casting her body into the water, pursued his journey to the West alone. Her body was found near the gampong of Kaje’e Jat’oe (just about where the hospital at Kuta Raja now stands) and was pulled out of the water by the people of that gampong. When they found it was the body of a woman belonging to Tanjong, they brought her thither and she was buried there.
Meantime the unhappy woman had been transformed into a burong, which rested not until she had overtaken and slain her murderer. After having thus appeased her passion for revenge, she seized a man in the gampong of Kayee Jatoe; but on his reminding her that his people had rescued the body of Rabiah or Srabi from the waves and made her burial possible, she let him go, “and at the same time swore never to molest a woman of that gampong.” All the more violent, however, were her onslaughts on pregnant women and those in childbed in other gampongs.
The burong in general
The burong of Achehnese superstition has much in common with the kunti or kuntianak of the Sundanese and the sundel bolong which is an object of dread in certain parts of Java. Like the latter, the burong is conceived of as having the form of a woman with a great hole in her back, showing the vital organs. Many of them are believed to be the spirits of women who have led an unchaste life and come to an unhappy end in consequence; the number of this malignant race is added to by the ghosts of women slain by a burong in childbed, who then become burongs themselves. (The Achehnese word burong is exactly identical in sound with the Malay burong = “bird,” but “bird” in Achehnese is cicm, and the spirit’s name has no connection in the Achehnese mind with the Malay word.)
Like the Sundanese kunti, the burong sometimes announces her presence by a shrill scream, a sustained nasal iiii; but she is most to be feared when she creeps upon her victim without any such warning. This she does more especially when a pregnant woman heedlessly ventures out of doors after sunset, or when her husband or some other inmate of the house, after having been out for the evening, comes in directly without taking the proper precautions. Occasional loss of consciousness and delirium are regarded as unmistakable symptoms of possession by a burong.
Recognition and the craving for food
Like the zars which are wont to “possess” the women of Mecca, the Achehnese burongs have certain desires which they express to the comprehension of expert enquirers through the lips of the victims whom they have bereft of their senses. These experts do not confine themselves simply to repeating a tangkay or exorcising incantation; they must first know what burong it is they have to do with. Where the delirious patient, through the interpretation of the expert, expresses a desire for murong-leaves (the leaves of the plant known as kelor, used as a vegetable), for dried buffalo’s flesh (pali) and salted ducks’ eggs (boh ite iteung), it is then regarded as certain that it is the dreaded Burong Tanjong that has to be contended with. The same articles, Snouck Hurgronje notes, are precisely those whose appearance at the bedside is taken as Srabi Tanjong’s signature.
Vows and the cult at the tomb
Sometimes the mother of the sick woman makes a vow to visit the tomb of the evil spirit in case of her daughter’s recovery. Such a vow is performed in the company of a large party of friends after the forty-fourth day. Goats or fowls are killed as the occasion may require, and a feast is given. Flowers are also offered at the tomb, together with a piece of white cloth to serve as a covering for one of the tombstones. At the same time a piece of one of the white coverings already surrounding the tombstone is brought away, and strips of this are worn as charms round the neck and wrists of mother and child until they wear out. The circumstance that these spirits which torment women in childbirth have definite names — and especially the fact that they have tombs which are revered in the same manner as those of departed saints — is noted by Snouck as a characteristic feature of Achehnese folk-religion.
See Also
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.
Burong Srabi — also Burong Seurabi, Srabi Tanjong, or simply Burong Tanjong — is in Achehnese popular superstition the most dreaded of all the burongs, the female spirits that prey upon pregnant women and women in childbed. Her tomb is situated in gampong Tanjong (mukim of Pagaraye), close to the capital of Acheh, and is reverently visited by mothers who have vowed to “fulfil their vow at the tomb of their grandmother” (ja peu-theu’ch kaoy ba jeurat ne) — the euphemistic formula by which the ill-omened burong is politely addressed.
Origin legend
The proper name of the woman who, after death, was changed into this monster, appears to have been Rabiah (abbreviated in Srabi or Si Rabi). She is said to have been the daughter of a religious teacher, but in spite of the pious lessons and strict discipline of her father, she was seduced into an intrigue. When she had been some time pregnant, her lover induced her to fly with him to the West Coast. They dropped down the river in a boat, but before they reached the open sea the man slew his paramour and, casting her body into the water, pursued his journey to the West alone. Her body was found near the gampong of Kaje’e Jat’oe (just about where the hospital at Kuta Raja now stands) and was pulled out of the water by the people of that gampong. When they found it was the body of a woman belonging to Tanjong, they brought her thither and she was buried there.
Meantime the unhappy woman had been transformed into a burong, which rested not until she had overtaken and slain her murderer. After having thus appeased her passion for revenge, she seized a man in the gampong of Kayee Jatoe; but on his reminding her that his people had rescued the body of Rabiah or Srabi from the waves and made her burial possible, she let him go, “and at the same time swore never to molest a woman of that gampong.” All the more violent, however, were her onslaughts on pregnant women and those in childbed in other gampongs.
The burong in general
The burong of Achehnese superstition has much in common with the kunti or kuntianak of the Sundanese and the sundel bolong which is an object of dread in certain parts of Java. Like the latter, the burong is conceived of as having the form of a woman with a great hole in her back, showing the vital organs. Many of them are believed to be the spirits of women who have led an unchaste life and come to an unhappy end in consequence; the number of this malignant race is added to by the ghosts of women slain by a burong in childbed, who then become burongs themselves. (The Achehnese word burong is exactly identical in sound with the Malay burong = “bird,” but “bird” in Achehnese is cicm, and the spirit’s name has no connection in the Achehnese mind with the Malay word.)
Like the Sundanese kunti, the burong sometimes announces her presence by a shrill scream, a sustained nasal iiii; but she is most to be feared when she creeps upon her victim without any such warning. This she does more especially when a pregnant woman heedlessly ventures out of doors after sunset, or when her husband or some other inmate of the house, after having been out for the evening, comes in directly without taking the proper precautions. Occasional loss of consciousness and delirium are regarded as unmistakable symptoms of possession by a burong.
Recognition and the craving for food
Like the zars which are wont to “possess” the women of Mecca, the Achehnese burongs have certain desires which they express to the comprehension of expert enquirers through the lips of the victims whom they have bereft of their senses. These experts do not confine themselves simply to repeating a tangkay or exorcising incantation; they must first know what burong it is they have to do with. Where the delirious patient, through the interpretation of the expert, expresses a desire for murong-leaves (the leaves of the plant known as kelor, used as a vegetable), for dried buffalo’s flesh (pali) and salted ducks’ eggs (boh ite iteung), it is then regarded as certain that it is the dreaded Burong Tanjong that has to be contended with. The same articles, Snouck Hurgronje notes, are precisely those whose appearance at the bedside is taken as Srabi Tanjong’s signature.
Vows and the cult at the tomb
Sometimes the mother of the sick woman makes a vow to visit the tomb of the evil spirit in case of her daughter’s recovery. Such a vow is performed in the company of a large party of friends after the forty-fourth day. Goats or fowls are killed as the occasion may require, and a feast is given. Flowers are also offered at the tomb, together with a piece of white cloth to serve as a covering for one of the tombstones. At the same time a piece of one of the white coverings already surrounding the tombstone is brought away, and strips of this are worn as charms round the neck and wrists of mother and child until they wear out. The circumstance that these spirits which torment women in childbirth have definite names — and especially the fact that they have tombs which are revered in the same manner as those of departed saints — is noted by Snouck as a characteristic feature of Achehnese folk-religion.
See Also
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.