Jawnomicon

Bajang

Also called Badjang, Bajang.

The Bajang is a malignant familiar spirit of Malay tradition, often an enslaved stillborn child's spirit taking civet-cat form, kept and fed by a family and sent out to cause illness.

At a glance

Tradition
Malay folklore
Trait family
The Hearth-Bound

Near this figure

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Behaviour

  • Bound to a specific household location
    why

    Sources describe the spirit being kept in a container, often a vessel of bamboo, and sustained with regular offerings of eggs and milk, in exchange for which it is sent out to afflict chosen victims, particularly children and women in labor, with unexplained illness.

Sight and sound

Omens

Utility powers

  • Shapeshifting
    why

    Bane credits the Bajang with changing shape, assuming the form of a cat, a weasel or a lizard of great size, and says that a cat-shaped one that mews at a baby is believed to doom the child.

  • Spiritual familiar
    why

    Several accounts describe the Bajang specifically as a familiar spirit, meaning it is not simply a wild threat but a supernatural servant bound to and controlled by a human family, who are said to obtain it through particular ritual means.

Curses

  • Curse infliction
    why

    in exchange for which it is sent out to afflict chosen victims, particularly children and women in labor, with unexplained illness.

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.