Mysterious Practices in Olden Day Penang: The Lady Spirit and The Lottery Number
by Penang island has its many cultures and practices, and one famous story is about the practice of summoning the dead from the grave for lottery number predictions. These are probably just legends of the older times but it still makes an interesting reflection of the beliefs of ghost and spirits.
Life has always been more difficult in the old days and the Chinese were very superstitious with things such as luck and money. As important as it is, money was made through business, dealings and of course, the lottery. The lottery was and still is seen as something which requires luck or intervention from spiritual forces in order to make it big. Who would have thought that something which started as random probability has lead to practices such as dream interpretation and consulting of spirits?
Dream interpretation and the hiring of spritual mediums were a common practice but of course there were some who have decided to take it to a different level – by summoning the dead from the grave.
This was a simple but dangerous practice. Summoning the wrong spirit could often endanger ones life. Penang has many burial grounds all over, some being as ancient as one could remember. So as the story goes, there were four men who wanted to make money real quick. After obtaining some dog’s blood filled into an urn, the group set out to an ancient grave of a powerful lady spirit whom they believe will grant them the jackpot figures.
These graves were often left unfenced because superstition and fearing the wrath of the dead had actually prevented any form of vandalism. So upon arriving, the men poured the dog’s blood unto the grave of which will awaken the spirit. Within minutes the spirit came out and she asked what was it that the men wanted, of which they replied, “we are here to ask a favor – to be granted with the winning lottery number, and in return we will give you an offering of a whole roasted pig and food.” It is believed that an offering of an entire pig was a very grand offering to the dead. However, the spirit was not pleased and replied, “You have burnt my body with the blood of a dog and you expect me to be pleased with your offerings?I want you to spend an eternity with me in hell as my husbands!”
Fearing for their souls the men fled, of which the first one fell off a cliff in the darkness and died. The other two sped off in a car only to crash fatally and die. The remaining one managed to make it to a nearby temple of which the spirit followed him to. The chief monk of the temple then confronted the spirit and asked what she wanted. Knowing that the men have offended the spirit because of the dog’s blood, the chief monk took 6 drops of blood from himself and offered it to the spirit to spare the man’s life. Respecting the chief monk, the spirit then left with a stern warning to the man – “I will wait for you in hell.”
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