ABSTRACT
W hen Skeat asked Kelantan Negritos about the fate of the soul after death, he was told that those of the old and wise proceed to a Paradise in the west, where there are all kinds of fruit trees. To reach this the souls have to pass over a tree-trunk bridge, guarded by a gigantic figure with a single nostril, huge eye-sockets without eyeballs, two immense tusks in each jaw, exceedingly curly hair, and enormously long finger-nails crossed upon its breast. Many souls, frightened of this monster, fall into the boiling lake beneath the bridge and swim there, for three years, trying desperately to escape, after which the Chief of the Heaven of Fruit Trees, if he thinks fit, lets down his big toe to which they cling and pull themselves out. The bodies of the old and wise (bĕlian, for instance) are exposed in trees, so that they may be able to fly over the head of the demon guardian.
