'SEVERAL years ago two
Chinese girls from the bazaar came to the girls' school. They
were not Christians.
The older sister later married one of our Christian boys, but
the younger girl, Ah Lim, married a Chinese trader who was not
a Christian and who lived some thirty miles up the river from
Sibu. This man had formerly been married to a Dyak girl who had
died, but before she died she urged her husband to marry her sister
after she had gone. She said if he married any other girl she
would return to haunt her.
After Ah Lim's marriage she was taken to her husband's home which
was the same in which the Dyak woman had lived. Soon Ah Lim complained
of being disturbed in her sleep - a voice called to her in Dyak
continually but nobody heard it except herself. She became so
nervous she could neither sleep nor eat and after a while returned
to her own home in Sibu.
Her parents used all sorts of
charms and devices known to Chinese, but still she could not sleep.
If she did, she cried out in her sleep in the Dyak language,
and soon awakened in an exhausted state. When she was in her ordinary
condition she could speak no Dyak at all. She had no appetite
and nothing she ate stayed down. This state of affairs went on
for days.
Mrs Hoover visited her several times. While Mrs Hoover was there
she was much quieter. I went once or twice but nothing happened
while I was there.
I was very sceptical about the whole affair. I thought first it
might be a ruse to get her home, or perhaps she and her husband
did not get along, but inquiry proved the facts otherwise. The
little sleep she got was worse than none, being very disturbed.
She had had no nourishment for days.
Something had to be done, so we asked whether she would like to
come and stay in the school for a while, assuring her that no
evil spirits could get her there. She agreed at once. We brought
her to the school, gave a little cocoa, and then she went off
into a sound peaceful sleep. This was about 4 pm. At six she was
still asleep. Inquiry at eight brought the same answer. I was
convinced I had broken the spell - a little suggestion had done
the work.
That night I was sitting at my desk doing some bookkeeping (our
house is next door to the school). About ten o'clock all was quiet
and still when a voice from the front of the school called out
in Dyak, "Ah Lim, Ah Lim", I was quite annoyed and told
Mrs Hoover I wished those people would go home and leave Ah Lim
alone. She went to the window and said: "What do you want?"
The answer came, "I want Ah Lim to go home." "Where
to?" asked Mrs Hoover. "Back to the plantation,"
came the answer.
I was working away and thought nothing of it, but when Mrs Hoover
turned from the window, she said in an awed whisper, "It's
the voice."
I took in the situation at once,
dropped my book and rushed out. It was too dark to see, so I lost
a few seconds returning for a lantern. We searched every place
and turned out the neighbours but could find nobody, and another
strange thing about it was that nobody nearby heard the calling
except Mrs Hoover and me.
Ah Lim slept right through it. None of the girls or the matron
heard it. The Chinese preacher and his wife who live on the other
side of the school and are nearer than we, did not hear it either.
We made all preparations to catch that voice if it returned. We
hid in the hedge the next night but it never came back.
A few days after this Ah Lim said she must go back to her own
home in the bazaar. We tried to keep her, but she insisted on
going, so we let her go. She had the same trouble all over again.
Then she left the place and we did not hear of her for months.
She is back now, is well and living in the bazaar, and is a regular
attendant at church.' - MM, Aug 1926, p.13.
Earnest Lau, the Associate Editor of Methodist Message, is also the Archivist of The Methodist Church in Singapore.
QUOTE:
NO EXPLANATION
'I still believe that there is no voice without a body, but I
never went to bed with stranger feelings. To this day I can offer
no explanation, and to talk of it gives me the creeps.'
-- The Rev J. M. Hoover on "the voice".