Polong

According to the supplied accounts, a polong is created by keeping the blood of a murdered man in a spherical bottle with a narrow neck; over a period of one to two weeks the maker utters incantations over the bottle and the blood becomes a polong. The created spirit refers to its human maker as its 'mother' or 'father' and is kept hidden outside the owner's house when not in use.

Traditional descriptions depict the polong as taking the form of a miniature woman the size of the first joint of the finger. The creature is stored in a small, spherical-necked bottle when not deployed and is concealed outside the owner's dwelling.

The polong functions as a hired or household spirit-agent sent to afflict a specified human target. Its attacks are narratively linked to a smaller companion, the grasshopper-like pelesit, which is said to enter the victim's mouth and chirp; the polong then follows and possesses the person. During possession the victim becomes frenzied: sources describe frothing at the mouth, tearing at clothing, attacking nearby people, and behaving as if insane. Some accounts add that victims are left with bruises, markings and often blood from the mouth (these latter details are noted as present in some sources). In exorcism the polong can speak through the possessed person in a falsetto voice to identify its owner, and it may attempt to resist by making the afflicted attack the shaman or by falsely accusing another person.