Page:Siamese ghostlore - Irwin - 1907.pdf/4

 seen the tracks in the floor, were all satisfied that a "pi lawk" had driven him from his former lodging.

In the same town in which the foregoing occurrence took place an acquaintance of the writer also met what he took to be a "pi". Returning home late one night from a neighbouring house with a lamp in one hand, and leading by the other a large and fierce 'Haw' dog, he had almost reached the foot of the steps leading to his house when the dog hung back and refused to go on. He turned to drag at the animal's collar, when he perceived it was glaring at something behind him. Following the direction of its eyes, he saw sitting on his heels a few feet away a small boy about half a metre high, and absolutely snow white from head to foot. He realised that this was something unearthly, his heart stopped beating, and he simply stood and stared at the boy for, as it seemed to him, about three minutes, when he came to himself, and made a bolt upstairs. Unfortunately in his fright he did not look where he was going, and struck his head against a screen at the top of the steps. This stunned him, and his friends hearing the noise came out and picked him up. He did not recover from the fright for six months, during which all his hair fell off. He considered that on account of the injury to his health the thing he saw was probably a "pi lawk."

The "pi am" (ผีอำ) is a "pi" which comes and sits on the chest or liver, or perhaps treads on a person just as he or she is dropping off to sleep, usually in a strange place, such as the sala of a wat, when on a journey. The person afflicted can only groan or emit inarticulate sounds while the "pi" is there, and cannot speak until it departs. The description given of this "pi" reeminds one of what is spoken of in English as nightmare. The "pi pret" (ผีเปรต) is a giant among "pi" varying in height from ten to sixteen metres. It is the ghost of one who was an evil doer when alive. Its mouth is exceedingly small, even as the eye of a needle, so that it can never satisfy its hunger. The consequence is that its appearance is that of a skeleton. It cannot speak, but can make a noise like a whistle. There is one such "pi," which is said