Editorial note — Chapter IV · The Malay Pantheon

Their commonest name, ‘Jin isi-isi didalam Dunia’ (the Genii who Fill the World), is owing to the fact that their enormous numbers fill the whole atmosphere from earth to sky. Like the good Genii, they cannot die before the great day of judgment, but (unlike them) they are dumb.

“Great as their numbers are they are continually increasing, as they are suffered by God to get children after their kind. They are imps of mischief, and their whole time is spent in works of malice. Sometimes when there has been a long drought and a heavy shower of rain is poured down upon the earth by the angels at the bidding of God to cool the parched verdure, they will assemble their legions, bringing with them invisible cocoa-nut shells, one for each drop of rain. In these they catch each rain-drop as it falls, and herbs and trees alike wither for lack of moisture. Then the angels being wroth, cast thunderbolts upon them out of heaven, and these malicious elves take shelter in tall trees, which the thunderbolts blast in their fall. At another time they will climb one upon the other’s shoulders until they reach the sky, when the topmost elf kicks a neighbouring angel, and then they all fall together with a crash like thunder.” ↑