My first post on this blog (not long ago) is about my own encounter during national service. In this post, I’ll share a story, not my own encounter but from my National Service dorm mate. Before I start let me explain a little on the surroundings of the camp. It is surrounded in the middle of a jungle. On the left, there’s the thick jungle. On the right there’s palm oil plantation. In front there’s a hill. Our female dorm is located in front of the male dorm but it was blocked by concrete wall. So the male dorm is exactly in front of the hill…

She is a devoted Muslim. Everyday she’ll get out of bed around 4.30am to bath then perform her ’subuh’ prayer. That’s her routine for the 1st 2 months during National Service. However, things change after she saw something that is unexplainable…

As usual, she gets up at 4.30am. After she gathered all her things, she began walking to the bathroom (which is located behind our dorm). Once she stepped out from the dorm, she saw something float pass at her right eye corner. She turned to look at it. As it was moving quite fast, she thought it was kids toys like remote control helicopter or something.

After a while, she realised that there’s no kid in the camp area. So what could it be? As soon as she finish that thought, the ‘thing’ that she saw floating pass just now, returned the way it came. She take a second look at it and realised that ‘thing’ it was what the Malays call Langsuir. She moved back into the dorm without second thought.

Thank God the langsuir didn’t do anything to her. But ever since that day, she no longer go to the bathroom at 4.30am alone…

Note: Langsuir is believed to be a person who practices black magic. They can separate their head from body and are after newborn babies… In the older days, it is said that langsuir will linger outside houses where mothers are giving birth and will snatch babies as soon as they are born… and if they don’t get back to their body by sunrise, they’ll die. Another way to put an end to them is to turn their body face down so their head cannot fit onto their body, then they’ll eventually die…