The Legend
The story is based on an old Thai legend of a type of ghost or spirit known as a Pee Fah (Thai: ผีฟ้า), or Phi Pop (Thai: ผีปอบ).
The Pee Fah needs to possess a host in order to live, and only leaves the host's body when the host is asleep. Before the host dies, the Pee Fah must find a new host in which it can reside, and that is achieved by inducing the new victim to consume saliva from the old host. These ghosts are powerful and fearful, and if one succeeds in entering someone, it will possess them for life, feeding on the intestines and blood of human victims.
A Pee Fah can be banished from its host by the performance of a special dance, in which the exorcist moves in whirlpool-like motions. The ghost is drawn out by the whirling effects, and so leaves the host's body.
The original version of the legend tells of a Prince who was a practitioner of magic, and who discovered an incantation that enabled him to enter and possess the bodies of living victims. On one occasion when the prince said the magic words to enter the body of an animal, his servant overheard overheard him, and used the words to enter the vacated body of the Prince.
The Prince, having discovered his servant's action, entered the body of a bird and flew to his wife to seek help. Between them they destroyed the body of the servant. Next, the prince (in the bird's body) challenged the servant (in the prince's body) to enter the body of an animal. When the servant foolishly entered and took control of the animal's body, the real Prince re-entered his own body, leaving the spirit of the servant with no body of his own to return to.
From that day on, the spirit of the servant was condemned to seeking a succession of new hosts.
Read more about this topic: Pob Pee Fah
Famous quotes containing the word legend:
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—Willis Goldbeck (1900–1979)
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Capt. York: Correct in every detail.
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—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)