Freaky figurine in a bottle washed ashore

Toyol drawing them in

PEKAN: Is the toyol – long regarded as a mythical supernatural creature – for real?

Hundreds of visitors who thronged the state museum here think so as they scrutinised a figurine kept in a bottle that was on display there.

A curious fisherman had found the bottle on Tuesday on the shores of a coastal village, believing that what he saw in it was a toyol.

In Malay folklore, a toyol is a goblin-like creature that steals money and commits other mischief or evil at the instruction of its guardian.

Not wanting to have anything to do with it, the unidentified fisherman from Kampung Kuala Pahang rushed to nearby Kampung Siong, about a kilometre away, and passed it to a bomoh.

The bomoh, in turn, handed it to the state museum.


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Figurine in bottle attracts visitors

PEKAN, Feb 23: Many curious visitors flocked to the Sultan Abu Bakar Museum today to look at a bottle with a small human-shaped figurine inside.

The bottle was found on the beach near Kuala Pahang yesterday evening and has been temporarily placed at the museum.

What sparked the interest were claims by locals that the figurine was probably a toyol (an evil spirit known in Malay folklore to serve its human master by stealing from others).

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Museum director Ahmad Farid Abdul Jalal said a group of fishermen found the figurine and handed it to the museum for safekeeping last night.

However, he said the figurine would be "returned" to the sea after a consultation with several local bomohs this afternoon.

"They claimed that the figurine was not a toyol but an object used in black magic which was probably thrown into the sea in a spiritual healing ritual."



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