abstract
| - Lady Tanee is a female spirit that has a beautiful face with long hair. She has fragrant skin and her hands and feet are light red, like a pigeon's feet. Her lips are the color of ripen ivy gourd fruit and her body shape is similar to the trunk shape of the musa balbisiana she resides in. Tanee may come out to seduce a man to have sexual intercourse with her. After having sex with her, the man can’t pay any attention to any other women. If he tries to get with another girl without getting permission from Tanee, Tanee will go after that girl and kill her. If he obtains Tanee's permission with honesty, the guy will easily get the girl with Tanee's help. Some say the guy will lose weight until death soon after having sex with Tanee. Because of this ghost, people prefer not to grow a musa balbisian near their home. If one wants to get the banana leaves to use, the leaves have to be broken or cut before being taken into a house. Taking the whole leaf into a house will cause a family member to die. In the olden days, people lay three leaves of the musa balbisian at the bottom of a coffin. When the plant is in bloom, some may offer pig head, dessert, rice, flower, candle, incense etc. to Tanee. Some even place rings and necklaces at the inflorescent and tie a red cloth around the pseudostem as her skirt. This practice is to ask her to protect everyone in the house and, at best, get some luck. This is because some believe that Tanee only stays in the plant that blooms. Some say the plant that has Tanee is the one that has a clean pseudostem and green leaves without dry leaf sheathes. The area around the canopy is also clean. More about this Tanee banana: If the inflorescent comes out at the middle of the pseudostem instead of the tip of the pseudostem, it is believe that there is a baby ghost “Kuman Thong” in that inflorescent.
|