Hantu Spirits Unpacked

A ghost that can copy your face, sit on your porch while you’re miles away, and keep you trapped in a brutal death rattle until you “pass it on” to your kid? That is where our deep dive into Hantu spirits begins, and it only gets stranger from there.

We’re Josh, Jamey, and Aleca, and we’re digging into Malaysian and Indonesian paranormal folklore where “Hantu” is a broad category for spirits, ghosts, and demons. We talk through the Hantu Raya contract and the idea of a familiar that demands offerings for protection, plus the chilling inheritance angle that turns a haunting into a family problem. Then we move into Pontianak lore, a terrifying figure tied to childbirth fears, roadside encounters, and the disturbing iron nail legend that claims she can be forced into human form.

From there, we hit the Pocong, the shroud-bound ghost that hops or glides through the night, and the Penanggalan, a witch whose head detaches and flies with glowing organs, hunted with thorns, chilies, and the smell of vinegar. We also cover the Hantu Bomo, the shaman who falls into darkness, and the Toyol, a toddler-like stealing spirit distracted by marbles and beans. We connect these myths to broader questions about how legends spread, why certain patterns show up in the US too, and how AI videos make the modern paranormal harder to trust.

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Transcript

Welcome To Paranormal Peeps

Speaker 3 0:00

Between the realm of the dead and the journeys of the living, join Josh, Jamie, and Elisa as they delve into the vast world of the paranormal and breathe life back into the history of the departed.

Speaker 1 0:11

Hey everybody, welcome to the Paranormal Peeps Podcast. I'm Josh.

Speaker 0:15

And I'm Jamie. And I'm Elisa. And today we are going to talk about Hantu spirits.

Speaker 1 0:21

Hontu?

Speaker 0:22

Hontu. So in Melane, Indonesia, and the neighboring areas around there, that is their word for ghost, spirit, or demon. So it's a broad category that covers anything from their ancestral souls to like malevolent spirits.

Speaker 1 0:46

Do we do we have a term that we use for that here in the US?

Speaker 3 0:52

A broad term that just covers it all?

Speaker 1 0:54

Yeah. I mean, I guess spirit.

Speaker 3 0:56

Well, yeah, but don't isn't like when we use the word supernatural, doesn't that cover like a broad range?

Speaker 1 1:03

Yeah, I guess paranormal would be pretty close. Because that covers everything from Sasquatch to aliens to so is like supernatural too, like.

Speaker 3 1:12

Yeah.

Speaker 1:14

But I wonder if there's just one for ghosts in general. I don't know. That's a good question. There probably is, and we know it, and we're just not thinking of it at all. We talk about it all the time, but we don't ever say it. That sounds about right. So the Huntu are often thought to have physical or semi-physical forms rather than just being like a transparent apparition. So, because the term is so broad, there are many different types of Hantus with their own different behaviors.

Hantu Raya And The Familiar Contract

Speaker 1:48

So there's a Rea Huntu, and a Rea means a great ghost or a grand spirit. And it's one of the most formidable or complex entities in the Malayan Indonesian demonology. Unlike many other bows, they are the souls of the deceased, and the Huntu Rea is often categorized as like a high-ranking djinn or an elemental spirit that exists in a symbiotic, often transactional relationship with a human. So one of the most powerful spirits often serving as a familiar for a practitioner of black magic. And for those of you that don't know what a familiar is, a familiar is a spirit guide basically that appears as an animal or an entity that assists and protects the person that they're working with. And it can take the form of the owner, and it is used for manual labor or even as an alibi.

Speaker 1 2:51

Hey, it wasn't me, it was my familiar.

Speaker 2 2:55

What you talk about.

Speaker 1 2:57

I don't think I really don't think that defense would work in the US.

Speaker 3 3:02

I know, I've heard dumber defenses, so that seem to get people get away with.

Speaker 1 3:08

Well, I suppose that's true.

Speaker 3:10

But I mean there's also like different generations that take on things like voodoo and and stuff that travels throughout the years that people still believe that was a long time ago that like um people painting their houses blue or their porches blue and their ceilings blue. Right. You know, so that the spirit thinks that that's water and so they won't come to the house. Interesting. Yeah. We'll have to I'll have to talk on that next time. But I think it's things that just get handed down generation after generation, right? Just people just stick with it because it in their minds it works. Sure. So that makes sense. Yeah. So the Huntu Rea is rarely like a wild ghost. It's typically a soccer, a spirit that is kept, fed, and passed down through generations. So it's described as a massive towering black silhouette, often with glowing red eyes, and a hairy muscular build. Hairy.

Speaker 3 4:13

Hairy? So the hairy and the red eyes make it seem like it's not good. Yeah. Nothing good.

Speaker 1 4:22

But what do you feed them?

Speaker 4:25

Well, we'll get to that.

Speaker 1 4:26

Oh, okay.

Speaker 4:27

I was thinking like ghost toast, but so a practitioner of traditional magic or an individual seeking power or protection enters a contract with the spirit. It exchanges or in exchange for services, the owner must feed the Hontu Rea. Traditional offerings include yellow glutinous rice, roasted chicken, eggs, and sometimes even a drop of the owner's blood.

Speaker 3 4:56

Whoa, whoa. Okay, so it's quite the variety here.

Speaker 4:59

Sounded good until that last part.

Speaker 3 5:01

Right?

Speaker 5:03

The most distinct and chilling power of the Hontu Rea is its ability to take the exact form of its master. Legend says that a man could be seen by his neighbors working in the rice fields when he is actually miles away in another village. The person in the field was his Hontu Rea. If the owner travels, the Huntu Rea stands behind, or stays behind. Intruders would see the master of the house sitting on the porch, deterring them from entering, even if the house was technically empty. The darkest part of the Hontu Rea lore is the deathbed crisis. Because the spirit is bound by a contract, it cannot leave until that contract is transferred or broken. If an owner is dying but has not yet passed, the spirit passed the spirit to a descendant, the hontu Rea will keep the master's soul tethered to their body. This results in an agonizing long death rattle where the person cannot pass away despite being medically dead. The spirit may trick a child or a grandchild into accepting the inheritance. If the family member touches the dying person or answers a specific question, the bond transfers to them and the cycle begins anew. If the owner dies without a successor, the hontu Rea becomes astray and it will wander the area in the form of its late master by appearing to grieving relatives or performing the old master's habits. To get rid of the Hantu Rhea, a specialized practitioner of magic must perform a ritual to break the saka. This often involves sending the spirit back into the wilderness or locking it into a bottle and burying it or throwing it out to the sea. If the spirit is not properly banished, it is said to follow the family lineage, waiting for a weak willed descendant to reclaim it.

Speaker 3 6:58

Wow.

Speaker 7:00

So a personal experience somebody had. The neighbor saying that that person was just standing still, staring. For hours. For hours. Like that's creepy in and of itself. Yeah.

Speaker 1 7:56

It's like what you looking at?

Speaker 7:58

What you doing out there? You okay?

Pontianak And Childbirth Terrors

Speaker 8:02

So another one is called a pontenac. Perhaps the most famous, this spirit, this is the spirit of a woman who died during childbirth. Now, something that I've noticed when studying up on these things, there's they have a lot of fear around childbirth. There's multiple entities that go around childbirth. So we'll go through it as I'm going through the podcast, but just like keep that in mind. It's really interesting that they have this fear.

Speaker 1 8:35

Kind of makes sense though, because if you're talking about some kind of remote areas where there's probably not the greatest medical should something.

Speaker 3 8:43

Oh, for sure.

Speaker 1 8:44

And I'm sure the mortality rate could be very high, considering, you know, like those versus the city versus the uh the rural areas.

Speaker 8:54

Yeah. She is typically depicted as a beautiful woman with pale skin, red eyes, and long black hair. She is often dressed in a blood-smeared white dress. She only appears under the full moon. She also changes into a more monstrous form when she captures her prey, which can be men or pregnant women during childbirth. If you hear the sound of a baby crying but there's no baby, or the smell of a decaying corpse, one is probably near you. The Pontianac can disguise herself using the appearance of a beautiful woman to lure her prey. When she attacks, her true form emerges. Her skin becomes pale and withered, her fingernails turn into long claws, and she develops a hole in the back of her neck. She kills her victims by using her long fingernails to physically remove their internal organs for consumption. In cases where she seeks revenge against a man, she will eviscerate the victim with her hands. If the victim has their eyes open when she is near, she will suck them out of their head. She is believed to be to locate her prey by the scent of her victim's clean laundry. Because of this, some Malayans refuse to leave any piece of clothing outside their homes overnight. That's crazy.

Speaker 1 10:19

I would just stop doing laundry.

Speaker 10:20

Yep. And like we're not washing clothes, guys, we're all gonna stink. We're all gonna stink. One of the most unique aspects of the Pontinac lore is the belief that she can be domesticated or turn into a human woman. According to legend, if you sneak upon a Pontinac and drive an iron nail into the hole at the nape of her neck, she will instantly transform into a perfect, beautiful, and submissive human wife. She will remain human as long as the nail stays in her neck. If it is ever removed, even years later, after she has raised a family, she will immediately revert to her monstrous form and flee back into the forest, often killing her husband first.

Speaker 3 11:04

That is crazy. That'd be interesting, though. Hey kids, this is how I met your mother. She was once this horrific creature, and I I I drove a spike into the hole in the nape of her neck, and that's how she became my wife.

Speaker 1 11:22

The part that is is weird is like they can raise children.

Speaker 3 11:26

Right. Right.

Speaker 1 11:27

So what if they die in childbirth? Do you get a super one? Like twice as strong?

Speaker 11:34

I don't know. Maybe you just find her again in her and put a nail back into her neck and she revives. We lost you there for a minute.

Speaker 1 11:46

Like, yeah, what if like during childbirth it falls out?

Speaker 3 11:51

That's why you have you have backups close by.

Speaker 11:56

You always have one in your pocket ready. Right? Just be at the ready. So here is a personal experience. On a dark stretch of highway near a banana plantation was a motorcyclist who reported the sudden overwhelming scent of flowers, a sweet floral smell associated with funerals. He then saw a woman in a white dress standing by the side of the road with her back turned. As he slowly came down the road and offered help, he heard a high-pitched giggling that seemed to come from everywhere all at once. As he drew closer, the giggling turned into a guttural animalistic growl. He caught a glimpse of her reflection in his side mirror where her face should have been. There was only long matted hair and a hollow cavity. He sped away, claiming he felt cold, invisible hands brushing against his back for the next three miles.

Speaker 1 12:54

Yeah.

Speaker 3 12:56

It follows.

Speaker 1 12:57

Right. Interesting enough, though, this same type of story happens in the US. Truckers have come across the same thing. Yeah. A beautiful woman wearing white on the side of the road, and then when they pick her up for hitchhiking, either she disappears, or in some cases, they look over and she's got like the bottom half of a goat.

Speaker 3 13:24

What?

Speaker 1 13:24

Yeah, like she's got goat legs.

Speaker 13:26

So I never heard that. I haven't heard that with the goat legs. It looks like where she doesn't have a face, right? Or where she like is just screaming and it like freaks them out or whatever.

Speaker 3 13:37

I've never heard the goat legs. Not the goat legs. That's a new one for me.

Speaker 1 13:41

You know, the first time I heard that story, I was driving uh at night to get back home. And I was listening to the radio, and that's what came on. Nice. And I'm in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker 13:55

You're like keeping your eyes out for a woman in white with goat legs.

Speaker 1 13:58

Oh, I'm just gonna run her over. I'm not stopping to pick her up.

Speaker 3 14:03

I mean, come on, it could have been how I met your mother story.

Speaker 14:09

Like, where's that nail when I need one?

Speaker 1 14:11

We got beautiful little goat children. Half goat.

Speaker 14:18

Okay,

Pocong The Shrouded Hopper

Speaker 14:19

so this next one is called a pokong. And it is a ghost that is trapped in its burial shroud. According to legend, if the ties of the shroud are not undone during burial, the soul becomes restless and hops out of the grave. In burial traditions, in Malaysia and Indonesia, the deceased is wrapped in a white fabric called a kafan. The shroud is tied at the feet, the neck, and above the head to keep the body secure. According to legend, the soul stays on earth for 40 days after death. If the ties of the shroud are not released by a living person before the body is buried, the soul becomes trapped within the cloth. The body then jumps out of the grave to seek out the living, not necessarily to kill, but to plead for someone to untie the knot so that its soul can finally be released to the afterlife. Because the shroud is tied tightly to the ankles, the pokong cannot walk. They are seen as ghostly gliders or entities that teleport instantly from one spot to another. Their face is dried out or rotten. Since it has been in the ground, its skin is earthy, and it may have dark, empty eye sockets. Its presence is usually preceded by a sharp, pungent smell of decay, or the heavy, sweet scent of funeral flowers. Unlike the vengeful pontenac, the pokong motives are often more pathetic than malicious. A pokong will often appear in front of a person and stare silently. It might lean against a doorway or hover near a window. It will often appear in front of a person and stare silently. Because its arms are tied inside the shroud, it will use its head to knock on the doors of its former home, or even headbutt people to get their attention.

Speaker 3 16:11

Oh wow, could you imagine being headbutt with a rotten face?

Speaker 16:15

Dude, timey See that rotten face coming at you? If you run, it may follow you. While they are technically seeking help, the sheer terror of being chased by a wrapped corpse is enough to cause many victims to faint or fall ill from shock. I mean, reality is, yeah, that'd be pretty spooky. It would be a lie. Like the story's funny, but really that would be scary.

Speaker 1 16:41

I'd just see it instead of like teleporting it like hopping.

Speaker 16:44

I know, me too.

Speaker 1 16:45

All tied up.

Speaker 16:47

Me too. If you are brave enough to untie the knot above its head, the spirit will be released instantly. In some stories, the person who does this is granted a blessing or a shroud string that brings good luck. Though this is considered dark magic. There is a common belief that if a Pokong is chasing you, you should lie flat on the ground, because the Pokong can only see at eye level and has difficulty bending its stiff body. It may lose sight of you. So running in circles or zigzags is said to confuse them. Okay, cue the cartoon music is. Because they have limited mobility.

Speaker 1 17:24

Like running around in circles, get dizzy, fall over, you're safe.

Speaker 3 17:31

They can't see you. Where to go? Where to go? They just disappeared. Until it hops on you.

Speaker 1 17:37

And it trips over your body.

Speaker 17:43

So here's a personal account. A teenager taking a shortcut home through a cemetery path during a full moon reported seeing a tall white bolster leaning against a tree. Thinking it was a prank, he kicked it. The object didn't fall. It slowly tipped forward until it was upright and hopped once toward him. The boy described the face inside the shroud as being packed with earth. The knots above the head were dusty and frayed, and the Pokemon didn't attack. It simply stood in its path, vibrating silently. The boy reported that the air around the entity was incredibly cold and it smelled like old rain on a grave. He eventually had to jump into a nearby drainage ditch to get around it, as the spirit seemed unable to change its vertical orientation easily.

Speaker 3 18:36

That would be interesting. And see, it did. It hopped. It did, it hopped once.

Speaker 1 18:42

And then he just ran around it through the drainage ditch. I'm curious though, what is fresh rain on cemetery ground smell like?

Speaker 3 18:52

I don't know. Maybe when we go on our trip this year we can figure that out. I wonder if it's just like that musty smell.

unknown 19:01

Yeah.

Speaker 3 19:02

I mean, what's the difference between smelling rain on the ground and rain on a grave? Which is ground. I don't know.

Speaker 19:09

Maybe over there it's different. I don't know.

Speaker 1 19:11

Could be. Maybe we're gonna have to find out.

Speaker 19:14

Well, because okay.

Speaker 1 19:15

So we'll dig a fresh grave.

Speaker 19:16

No, no, no, no. Okay. So I went to England. Not England, but Scotland.

Speaker 3 19:22

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 19:23

You don't smell the rain before it comes.

Speaker 3 19:26

Really?

Speaker 19:27

Here you do. You can smell the rain before it comes. That's interesting. But there you cannot. So it makes me wonder if there is a difference.

Speaker 3 19:35

Oh, I'm sure there is. The question is what?

Speaker 19:38

Yeah. Well, and my my question also is if you untie the shroud, what happens to the corpse? Does it just fall and collapse?

Speaker 3 19:49

Falls like a piece of wood?

Speaker 19:50

Yeah.

Speaker 3 19:51

To the ground? Like just falls. That I imagine that's what would happen, but obviously they had they didn't say.

Speaker 1 19:57

Then you gotta go bury it.

Speaker 3 19:58

Nah, just leave it there. Put it in the drainage ditch.

Speaker 20:03

You'd get some real good luck after that one. Okay,

Penanggalan The Flying Head Witch

Speaker 20:09

this next one is kind of a a harder name. It's called a penengolin. While many ghosts are spirits of the dead, the penangolin is a living person, usually a woman, who has gained supernatural powers through dark magic, but at a horrific physical cost. Uh-oh. She's a witch! Burn her. During the day, she looks like an ordinary woman. At night, her head detaches from her neck and flies into the air. Oh, it gets better. Just wait, just wait. She doesn't she does not just fly as a head. She takes her stomach, her trailing intestines, heart, and lungs with her. These organs are said to glow like fireflies as she moves through the dark.

Speaker 3 20:59

Oh, that would be a sight to see.

Speaker 1 21:01

So her head comes off, and then her organs come with.

Speaker 21:06

So if you can picture her head coming off of her neck, and through her neck hole comes all of her intestines and her organs and all that stuff with her. And she starts flying through the neck.

Speaker 3 21:18

Wow. It's like a really morbid kite.

Speaker 21:23

So you grab hold of one of the intestines and it's like, what the heck is this? On a string?

Speaker 3 21:29

His face. Why would anybody want to do that? I don't know.

Speaker 1 21:34

It's like you can have unlimited power. But at night, your head is going to detach from your body, take its or your organs with it, and go flying around.

Speaker 3 21:50

For the purpose of what? Does it say?

Speaker 21:53

Yes.

Speaker 3 21:53

Okay.

Speaker 21:54

You will find. So she is driven by a specific predatory. Hunger. She feeds on the blood of newborn babies and a woman in labor. She perches on the roof of a house where a birth is taking place. She uses her long invisible tongue to slip through cracks in the floorboards or roof tiles to drain the blood of the mother or the child from above. If she cannot find a birth, she may settle for livestock or cause diseases in people by brushing her vinegar-soaked entrails against them as she flies past. Because her internal organs swell while she is flying and feeding, they won't fit back into her empty neck cavity. To fix this, she keeps a vet of vinegar in her home. Upon returning, she soaks her entrails in the vinegar to make them shrivel and shrink so that she can slip back into her human torso. So she pickles herself.

Speaker 1 22:55

Almost. And if she runs out of vinegar, she's out of luck.

Speaker 23:01

She's stuck.

Speaker 1 23:02

She's gonna be a mess in the morning.

Speaker 23:06

So if you suspect a woman in your village as a Penagolin, you look for the constant smell of vinegar in her house. Because she attacks from the air with the trailing organs, their traditional defenses are physical and quite grisly. People place the thorny leaves of pineapple-like plants around their windows, doors, and floorboards. If the Penagolin tries to fly past, her delicate intestines will get snagged on the thorns, trapping her until the sun rises. If she cannot return to her body before dawn, she will be exposed and die. If someone finds her empty body while her head is away, they can fill the neck cavity with broken glass, salt, or pepper. When she tries to reattach, the pain or the barrier will prevent her from merging back in, leading her to perish.

Speaker 3 24:00

She should put a sign on her body before her head flies away saying, back in five.

Speaker 1 24:07

I just can't imagine like you come home, right, from the day in the fields, and you you got home late, and you get home, and your wife is her headless corpse is standing there sitting, you know, in the chair, and so you're like, hmm, I should stuff it with glass and salt.

Speaker 3 24:30

Well, I mean, if you're well, if you're raised in those beliefs, you would automatically know to do that, right? Yeah. So different beliefs. Well, right.

Speaker 24:42

But if, though. What it what if it is your wife?

Speaker 3 24:47

Would you really do that?

Speaker 24:48

Yeah, do you do that?

Speaker 3 24:50

Or do you just keep the secret?

Speaker 24:51

I mean, I would think as a husband, I would keep the secret. Yeah.

Speaker 3 24:54

You'd wait for her head and her entrails to come back. You'd help her soak them in vinegar. And put them back in her body through the neck hole.

Speaker 1 25:02

Yeah, but she's murdering kids.

Speaker 25:04

Right, but maybe you would try to find a way to save her.

Speaker 3 25:07

Yeah. I mean, can you insert an iron rod in the back of her neck or to turn her human again? I mean.

Speaker 1 25:16

And if in doubt, just put gravy in her shoe.

Speaker 25:19

Rue in a shoe. Roo in a shoe. So here's a personal encounter. In a silt house near the jungle edge during a thunderstorm, a family was gathered inside because a relative was in the final stages of labor. The father reported seeing a flickering red light bobbing outside the high window about ten feet off the ground. He initially thought it was a large fire firefly or lantern. As the light moved closer to the glass, he realized it was pulsating, a mass of organs trailing beneath a human head. The stomach of the entity was glowing a dull rhythmic crimson. It began scraping its tongue against the wooden shutters, trying to find a gap in the floorboards. The family immediately began burning dried chilies and scattering thorny leaves under the house, which caused the entity to shrink and fly back towards the canopy.

Speaker 1 26:22

Yeah.

Speaker 3 26:22

Well, and then the thorns too. Yeah. You know.

Speaker 1 26:25

Cause discomfort.

Speaker 3 26:26

Yeah.

Speaker 1 26:27

Kids see that would be terrifying.

Speaker 3 26:29

That would be very terrifying.

Speaker 26:31

Can you imagine like living? I don't know if this is still prevalent today, but I mean, I'm sure like a hundred years ago it probably was. Yeah. Where they were worried about it.

Speaker 2 26:41

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 26:42

Can you imagine? Like you're already worrying about giving birth in general.

Speaker 2 26:45

Right.

Speaker 26:45

Even on a good day with a hospital and all the good stuff. Can you imagine at home? And then thinking about all these different things that can come to you as you're giving birth. Extra stress right there.

Speaker 1 26:57

Right. Well, that means maybe that's just a preparation though. Oh, but she's getting ready to give birth, right? Let's just throw some chilies and some thorny bushes around and protect the house before.

Speaker 3 27:06

I mean, if I was raised in that culture, then yeah.

Speaker 27:09

Or I also know too if like those are the excuses that they give for when babies die. Maybe it's their way of dealing with some kind of like thing that turned into this whole story.

Speaker 3 27:24

And just grew. Uh-huh. You know, it's a possibility. We find that a lot of our like legends and folklore come from things like that.

Speaker 1 27:33

Based just based off of fear.

Speaker 3 27:35

It's based off of fear, but it morphs into something entirely different. Yeah.

Speaker 27:38

Which, as we've learned, like with Slender Man and you know, other things, that it can actually take form. Yeah.

Speaker 3 27:46

You're like breathing life into it.

Speaker 27:48

Yeah.

Speaker 1 27:48

And that in itself would be terrifying, because then you'd be actually seeing a head with organs flying around.

Speaker 27:54

Yeah. But in my opinion, in reality, it would probably be just a spirit. Making it look like that's what it is. Right. Taking that type of form. Versus it really being that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 28:05

And no less terrifying though.

Speaker 28:06

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 28:07

Like people think ghosts are, I mean, ghosts can be terrifying in themselves for for individuals, but then finding one that's not quite fully human, or at least full bodied, sort of speak.

Speaker 3 28:20

Right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 28:24

It's it it's not a full body apparition. What would you call it?

Speaker 3 28:28

Well half body. But uh internal body apparitions. But the thing is, is an example of something like this was when we were at Waverly in 2017 and up on the fifth floor, remember I saw running left to right what looked like kids' legs from just above the knee down. Right. And then there was nothing above the knee.

Speaker 28:50

That is common to see parts of apparitions. Yes. Right. Or just like the torso on up or part of the chest on up. Or sometimes that you don't see the head at all.

Speaker 1 29:01

Yeah.

Speaker 29:02

Right, what right, but but to see internal organs is a whole nother thing. That's a whole different level there.

Hantu Bomo And The Healer’s Fall

Speaker 29:10

Okay, so the next one is a Hantu Bomo, which is a rogue shaman slash ghost.

Speaker 3 29:19

Okay.

Speaker 29:20

So a Bomo's powers come from his ability to negotiate with the spirit world. He often keeps familiars to do his bidding. As a regular shaman, if he breaks the strict moral or spiritual codes of his practice, such as using his powers for murder, extreme greed, or failure to perform specific rituals, then his familiars consume him. He doesn't die in the traditional sense. Instead, he becomes a haunted Bomo. He is a living man who has become a vessel for a dark entity. He may appear normal during the day, but at night he performs gruesome rituals or wanders the forest seeking offerings to appease the spirit that now controls him. If a powerful shaman dies without properly releasing his spirit or passing his knowledge to a successor, his ghost remains tethered to the physical world. He will haunt his old village, appearing exactly as he did in life. The most dangerous aspect of this ghost is that he may try to heal people. Villagers might seek out the ghost, thinking the shaman is still alive. However, because the spirit is now untethered from a from human morality, the cure often involves a terrible price or a curse that affects the victim's entire family. The Hontu Bomo is rarely depicted as a rotting corpse, like the Pokong. Instead, he is a figure of high strung tension and dread. He is often seen in traditional Malay dress and cap, but with eyes that are unnaturally dark or glowing. His presence is marked by the sound of chanting or the rhythmic clicking of prayer beads or ritual tools. Even when no one is visible, instead of decay, he often smells of strong ritual incense or specific medicinal herbs, which can be disorienting because these are normally safe or holy smells. The transition from a respected healer to a ghost is a fall from grace that represents the ultimate spiritual failure.

Speaker 1 31:30

Yeah, this is another one of those common Native American spirits. When you look at, we talked about the skinwalkers, we talk about the Wendigos, the uh Quiqua Quez, Quique, holy crud.

Speaker 3 31:51

Anyway, moving on.

Speaker 1 31:53

Moving on. But you talk about those are the same things, right? Those are those are the spiritual healers of the tribes who then go out and commit uh an atrocity, usually murder, and then they become a dark entity because of it.

Speaker 3 32:11

Yeah.

Speaker 1 32:12

So it's very it's a very common.

Speaker 3 32:14

Yeah.

Speaker 1 32:15

Very common lore. And maybe it it it sets as a a warning to the healers, like, hey, look, like you have a great responsibility to be shaman, and if you abuse your your position, this is what's gonna happen to you.

Speaker 3 32:33

Right.

Speaker 32:36

So here let's go with the personal account. In an abandoned wooden house on the outskirts of Malaysia, Malacca, Malaysia, a group of urban explorers entered a home that once belonged to a famous local healer who had died without a successor. They found a room filled with dead dead candles and rituables. I wonder what dead candles are. Maybe candles that just aren't lit or that are just uh burnt down? Yeah. Yeah. One explorer reported seeing an old man sitting in the center of the room, his back to the door, wearing a traditional shaman clothes. The witness claimed that the man was performing a ritual, but he was performing it on himself. He was chanting mantras and slashing water that smelled like old copper and earth onto his own lap. When the explorer's flashlight hit the man, he didn't disappear. He slowly turned his head 180 degrees. The witness reported that the man's skin looked like parched, cracked mud, and his eyes were entirely white. The most terrifying part was the sound. The chanting didn't even stop when the ghost had opened its mouth to hiss.

Speaker 1 33:59

Yeah. As soon as it turned its head, 80 degrees is it gone.

Speaker 2 34:04

I'm out. Yeah.

Speaker 1 34:06

I am running full bore. Straight out. It is gonna look like uh Gus and Sean from psych just running. Screaming like a girl, too.

Speaker 3 34:18

High tailing it out of there. Gone high-pitched scream.

Speaker 1 34:20

Yep. Where's Josh? He he left.

Speaker 34:24

He's long gone. This next one is called Toy Toy Toylo. Toy Hold on, hold on.

Speaker 1 34:34

Rollo.

Speaker 34:37

Moving on.

Toyol The Thieving Toddler Spirit

Speaker 34:38

Just kidding. This next one is called Toyol. A small childlike spirit evoked from a fetus. It is often used by its owner to commit petty crimes or steal money. The most unsettling aspect of the Toilo is how it is created. It is the spirit of a stillborn child or a miscarried fetus that has been reanimated through black magic by a Bomo shaman. The ritual often involves exhuming at the remains and performing incantations to bind the soul to the physical world. Once awakened, it is sold to the person who wishes to become wealthy without working. It is seen as a small toddler-sized humanoid with greenish or grayish skin, large red glowing eyes, and sharp pointed teeth. In many accounts, it is naked or only wears a simple loincloth. Despite its magical power, it has the intellect and temperament of a toddler. It is easily distracted, prone to tantrums, and requires constant parenting from its owner. Now listen to this. This is where I'd be like, heck no. The owner or the owner's wife must allow it to nurse from them, sometimes drawing blood instead of milk to maintain the bond. Yeah. Heck frickin' no. I'm out. Yep, nope, nope, nope. And that thing's they say everything's got sharp teeth? Right? Nope, nope. No thanks.

Speaker 3 36:20

I just.

Speaker 1 36:21

If you're going to get a a spirit to do your bidding, right? To be like, oh, it will you don't want to work for your money? That's fine. Send the spirit out, it'll get your money for you. But then you gotta parent it. It has tantrums, it has a short m like short attention span, so then you gotta like you know coax it all the time.

Speaker 3 36:43

You're working twice as hard than if you just go get a dang job.

Speaker 36:49

Its primary job is to steal small amounts of money or jewelry from neighbors. It is rarely used for grand heists. Instead, it steals a few bills or a single ring at a time so that the victim doesn't immediately notice the loss. I mean that's pretty smart. That's smart, but like the intellect of the toddler though. Over time these small thefts accumulate, making the owner wealthy while the neighbors wonder why their savings are slowly dwindling. Is that what happens whenever I lose my crap? I mean we can Toy Toy Loy Oh Guys, this is terrible.

Speaker 3 37:24

Moving on.

Speaker 37:25

It is literally five letters, and I can't even say it.

Speaker 1 37:28

I better go check. Words are hard. I better go check my piggy bank. We got pennies in there. Right? I mean, they should be worth a lot of money by now, right?

Speaker 3 37:37

If they multiply.

Speaker 1 37:38

I mean, they're pennies. I know. They don't realise.

Speaker 37:42

Yeah, 10 years ago.

Speaker 1 37:45

They don't exist anymore.

Speaker 3 37:46

I think we got like two rolls of 2026 or 2025 pennies, brand new.

Speaker 1 37:52

Shh, don't tell people that we're gonna get toyolos coming over and stealing our pennies.

Speaker 3 37:57

They might have already done it.

Speaker 37:58

I don't know where they are. Right. So because the Toyolo has a mind of a child, the best defenses against it are toys and distractions. If you suspect that one is haunting your home, you can leave a handful of marbles or beans on the floor. It is said to be obsessed with counting. It will stop to count every single bean or play with the marbles, forgetting its mission until the sun comes up and it must return home. Placing needles or sharp objects under your banknotes can deter them as they are afraid of hurting their small little hands. They are frightened by their own reflection. I probably would be too if I look like that. Owning one is a heavy burden. If the owner fails to feed it, usually with offerings of milk, sweets, or blood, or play with it, it will turn on its master, causing accidents or illness in the family. When the owner dies, the Toyolo must be passed to a descendant. If no one accepts it, the spirit becomes astray, wandering the village and causing mischief until it is eventually banished by a shaman.

Speaker 1 39:15

It takes a shaman to make it.

Speaker 39:17

Right. And a shaman to kill it.

Speaker 1 39:19

So if you're the only shaman in town and you made it, why would you banish it?

Speaker 3 39:26

And you know what? You can go buy one of those large bags of dried beans at Costco's, and that should keep them busy for a while.

Speaker 1 39:33

Well, your mason jar of jelly beans would make two mason jars.

Speaker 3 39:38

Two big mason jars of jelly beans. Yeah, that thing would be stuck in all night. It's got the word bean in it. Doesn't matter if they're jelly.

Speaker 1 39:47

I don't think so.

Speaker 3 39:48

It's shaped like one. It'll have to count it anyway.

Speaker 1 39:51

Right? Let's keep a mason. I would just leave it on my counter.

Speaker 3 39:54

Yep. I noticed a lot um other things. You have to pass it to a descendant. Yes. In almost every situation. Yep.

Speaker 40:03

Or else it's gonna wander the village and cause mayhem.

Speaker 3 40:07

Yep.

Speaker 40:09

Or like go to the rest of the family and cause illness and misfortune and all that, yeah.

Speaker 1 40:17

That is one thing you do not want to receive in your will.

Speaker 3 40:20

But either way, it's not good.

Speaker 40:22

I mean, yeah, because if nobody accepts it, then everyone's gonna get punished. Yeah. So what if you're but if you accept it, it's a lot of work. I'd be like, I'll accept it. I'm also going to get a shaman.

Speaker 1 40:34

Yep. Can you imagine those like Bill and Jane, they their toddler has been a toddler for 55 years. So it seems strange.

Speaker 40:46

Doesn't that seem a little it's got pretty sharp teeth for a toddler.

Speaker 3 40:51

Why are its eyes glowing red?

Speaker 40:53

Why is it naked all the time?

Speaker 3 40:55

It only wears a loincloth.

Speaker 40:59

So here's one of the accounts. In a small family-owned grocery store, the shop owner noticed that every evening exactly three ten ringit notes were missing from the cash drawer, even though the total count had been correct an hour prior. There were no signs of break-ins, and one night he stayed late and hid in the back office. He reported seeing a small, shadowy green toddler hop onto the counter. The entity didn't use its hands to open the drawer. It seemed to slip through the metal. It took the money and began playing with a bowl of marbles the owner had left out as a trap. When the owner made a sound, the creature vanished instantly, leaving behind a small damp footprint on the counter that smelled of stagnant pond water. Ew. Well, why was it green?

Speaker 1 41:50

Because that's what they look like. Green or green.

Speaker 41:53

I thought they were gray before.

Speaker 1 41:54

Green or gray.

Speaker 41:55

Yeah, green. Oh, greenish gray. But like why are they green?

Speaker 1 41:59

Swamp water.

Speaker 42:01

They stay in the swamp water.

Speaker 1 42:02

Duh. But it said it disappeared, but it left a footprint. So it still took the three the money with it.

Speaker 42:08

Yeah, like 30 bucks.

Speaker 1 42:12

Dang. Sneaky little thing. So even if you catch it, you still lose.

Speaker 3 42:17

Yeah, and he distracted with marbles, too.

Speaker 1 42:20

Yeah.

Speaker 3 42:21

Still didn't work. It's still. Still didn't work. Yeah. Ha. Beans. Beans are the way to go.

Speaker 42:28

So these are the Huntu spirits. There are

More Hantu And Why Legends Persist

Speaker 42:31

actually many more Huntu spirits. There's ones that are in forests that are the shape of a tree, but they can be as tall as clouds. And they walk through the forest at night. Interesting. And they are afraid of the smell of rubber, burnt rubber. They don't like it. And so people in their little villages will burn rubber at night.

Speaker 1 42:56

The burnt towel.

Speaker 42:58

Yeah. I don't like the smell of burnt rubber either. But what what that hauntu will do is pick them up. Like pick up a person and bring them up into the clouds and show them visions of the earth for the future or the past. And then when they're done with them, they'll just drop them. And they'll be at the top of the trees. And everybody will be like, How in the crap did you get up there? But they'll be super confused and don't remember how they got there.

Speaker 1 43:33

But did they remember the vision?

Speaker 43:35

They remember the vision.

Speaker 3 43:37

Wow.

Speaker 43:39

But there's many, many Honto spirits in these countries. Many different types. But I found these were the ones that were the most interesting.

Speaker 3 43:49

Wow, that's cool.

Speaker 1 43:51

They're all kind of interesting in that avenue.

Speaker 3 43:53

Although, the one about the trees and how they walk around at night. Have you seen? Any of these videos of like people seeing trees moving in the forest, like walking? Yes.

Speaker 1 44:07

No.

Speaker 3 44:08

I've heard of it. I've heard of it and I've seen like videos of it. And here's the thing though, before all this AI garbage, okay, because it is, it's garbage.

Speaker 44:18

I feel like it ruins everything.

Speaker 3 44:19

It ruins, it does. It ruins everything because you can't believe anything anymore.

Speaker 1 44:22

Oh no, no.

Speaker 3 44:23

You cannot believe any of the stuff you see on the but years ago, I had seen videos of people who had caught trees moving, like changing location in the forest. That's wild.

unknown 44:39

You know.

Speaker 44:40

Well, what are those like the rocks that are in sand that they actually have a trail behind them?

Speaker 3 44:47

Yeah, so there is an explanation they found for that. And I forget what it is. You can look it up though, it had something to do with um moisture, water, something like that, and I don't know. You there was an explanation years later on how those moving rocks actually leave those trails. Oh, that's cool. You'd have to look it up because I can't remember exactly what it was.

Speaker 1 45:13

So maybe that's the same thing with these trees. We'll find out that there's a transformation.

Speaker 3 45:18

Right. But they have roots, like deep roots.

Speaker 45:21

You're going like Lord of the Rings style.

Speaker 3 45:24

Yeah. But they just walk. They get up and they move.

Speaker 1 45:32

Yeah, I don't know. I'd here's the problem. I can only think I can think of is that episode of Bob's Burgers.

Speaker 3 45:40

Oh. I know what one you're talking about.

Speaker 1 45:43

Yeah. Where there there are aliens that were hiding out as trees.

Speaker 3 45:47

You know, when you look through a special pair of binoculars, you could see that they were aliens and not trees at all.

Speaker 1 45:52

Yeah.

Speaker 3 45:52

And they run after you.

Speaker 1 45:55

So that's I mean, that's all I could that's all I could see when you were saying when you guys were talking about it.

Speaker 46:00

All I'm thinking is like Lord of the Rings. Right. They're having that warn, all the trees come out.

Speaker 3 46:05

Yeah. Yeah, but definitely interesting though, and it sounds like there's just a vast amount of these spirits or ghosts.

Speaker 46:13

There are a lot of different kinds. A lot of different kinds.

Speaker 1 46:17

And I would bet if you go to into that area and start interviewing people that you will find somebody, and probably several somebodies who have who have had encounters with all of these spirits.

Origins Of Folklore And Listener Stories

Speaker 46:34

Well, and I think too, though, is that spiritual beliefs are huge. Yeah. They're part of everyone's communities and and their lifestyles and their history and pass down from generation to generation. And when you fully trust a parent or a grandparent and they're telling you these stories that it's like legit and it scares you enough to continue that that tradition.

Speaker 3 47:06

And to hit keep passing it down.

Speaker 47:08

Yeah, my thought is they they come from something.

Speaker 1 47:11

Right.

Speaker 47:12

Where do they come from? Like what is the origin of these stories?

Speaker 3 47:17

It would be interesting to find out the actual origin and see how it has morphed over the decades, you know.

Speaker 1 47:23

Oh, and it's probably centuries in these cases.

Speaker 3 47:26

Oh yeah.

unknown 47:27

Yeah.

Speaker 1 47:27

But yeah, you're right though. But I mean, we like you look at, you know, Scotland and Ireland, you have the Dulahan. Right? That's a bit a century-old story associated to something along those lines. You have uh the Jersey Devil in the US and other things that are Mothman. Mothman, like all of these things that have been, you know, folklore, so to speak, that have just taken a life of their own and they just keep going.

Speaker 3 47:57

Yeah. But it'd be interesting to see where some of these things started and what it originally was versus what it is today.

Speaker 48:04

Right. So if any of you know, do share. We want to know.

Speaker 1 48:08

Oh, absolutely. Any of our listeners over in in Indonesia, Malaysia, and that area, if you guys have it have had experiences with these uh creatures or uh know their origin stories, let us know. And as always, stay ghosty, my peeps.