Pelesit

Sources describe the pelesit as rooted in pre-monotheistic Malay animism and as a familiar spirit created and owned by humans. Two ritual procedures are reported for acquiring a pelesit; both are said in the sources to involve reciting correct incantations and biting off the tongue of a dead child, the severed tongue thereafter being ritually kept and transformed into the pelesit. Ownership is usually gendered—generally a woman—and the pelesit belongs to a wider set of household/hereditary familiars in Malay belief.

The pelesit is generally described as a small insect spirit—usually represented as a cricket and occasionally as a grasshopper—and small enough to be kept in a bottle. The Malay term pelesit is said to derive from lesit, meaning to buzz or whizz, so the entity's identity is tied to the insectual buzzing sound; available sources do not provide humanoid or large-form descriptions.

By itself the pelesit is said to enter a person's mouth tail-first and chirp inside the victim, provoking a characteristic symptom in which the afflicted will 'insanely rave about cats.' That internal chirping also functions as a summons for the polong; when the polong answers, it may render the victim unconscious or insane. The pelesit thus often serves as an intermediary or calling device to a more powerful familiar rather than as a world-altering force. Owners keep the pelesit contained and feed it (see ritual practices) to maintain control.