A Folklore - Hantu Paku

When I was 5 years old, my family moved back from Taiping to our kampung and that was one of  the best time of my life. Everyday was fun even though there was no electricity at that time. What was our entertainment at night? My late great grandmother. She was a great story teller.


After dinner, we will all joined her on her bed. This old lady slept on a brass bed with mosquito net. Just imagine there were me, my sister, and two of my cousins and her on the bed. Before she started, she will asked us to take her sirih (betel leaf). She will chew the betel leaf together with the areca nut before she started the story teller.

Hantu Paku 

Her favorite story was Hantu Paku or the story about a devil disguising as a princess.The young and beautiful princess was kidnapped by Hantu Paku on her way to her wedding to a Prince. Okay, let's the story begin...


Once upon a time, there was a princess engaged to a prince. She was young and very beautiful  Her father decided to marry her to the prince so that both states can be an alliance to each other.The princess was very happy that she was going to marry a handsome prince. 


The day before her wedding, the prince sent a sampan (boat) to bring the princess back to his place. On the way to the palace, the princess sang about her new husband. 


Her mom warned her, " Don't sing or else the Hantu Paku will know that you are here." 


But her mom warning was too late. The Hantu Paku has heard the princess and stopped her. The Hantu Paku threaten to kill all of them unless the Princess swapped places with her and the princess mother stayed behind. They have no choice because the Hantu Paku was very powerful. The Hantu Paku also asked the princess to be her maid while she becomes the princess.


The real princess wore golds and beautiful clothes but the Hantu Paku wore jewelery made from mud. The prince was surprised to see the ugly princess. He thought he was cheated but since he already made a promised he married the Hantu Paku.


One day, the prince wanted to eat dodol. He wanted his new wife to make the dodol. He asked his  wife , "Sayangku, can you make dodol for me?" 


The Hantu Paku said,"Baiklah sayang."


The Hantu Paku didn't know how to make dodol. She asked her people to get the ingredient for her. They brought the rice flour, the coconut and  the brown sugar to her. Since she didn't know , she did it wrongly. Instead of using the coconut milk, she took the hampas kelapa (coconut dreggs) to cook the dodol.


When the dodol was ready, the Hantu Paku proudly presented it to the Prince. When the Prince ate the dodol, he was surprised. The Hantu Paku thought the prince liked her dodol but she was wrong. 


The prince asked her ,"What is this? This is not dodol." He was so angry and threw the dodol to the wall. Plapp!!!! The dodol sticked to the wall. He threw the dodol to the ceiling and it sticked on the ceiling. The prince was very unhappy.


Without the Hantu Paku knowledge, the real princess also made the dodol. Since she knew how to make dodol, she used all the right ingredient to make it. When the prince saw her dodol, the prince was very happy but he still didn't know the identity of the real princess.


One day, while the princess was watching over the padi (rice) (where the padi has to be dried off before it can be pounded), she sang about her life. How she was forced to be a maid by the hantu paku. When the prince heard about it, he confronted the Hantu Paku. The Hantu Paku was scared and admitted that she duped the Prince. The Prince was so angry and ordered the Hantu Paku to be killed and sent her body back to her mom. The Prince then married the real Princess and they live happily ever after...


The whole story took about an hour for my grandmother to finish. She will sing and dance throughout the whole story. We were mesmerized by her. By the time we were to go to bed, nobody wanted to move from her bed because we were scared the Hantu Paku will come after us


I hope you enjoy this folklore and next time, I will share another story...Salam.