1 Lit. ‘Small history of Bantĕn’. See Pudjiastuti, Titik, Perang, dagang, persahabatan: Surat-surat Sultan Banten (Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia and Toyota Foundation, 2007), pp. 261–5Google Scholar.

2 Also just known as Sultan Agĕng and later as Sultan Agĕng Tirtayasa.

3 He is also known by the titles Sultan Haji, Sultan Muda — see Ricklefs, Merle C., A history of modern Indonesia since c. 1200 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), p. 96Google Scholar; Guillot, Claude, Banten: Sejarah dan peradaban abad X–XVII, trans. Setiawan, Hendra et al. , ed. Perret, Daniel (Jakarta: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia/École française d'Extrême-Orient [EFEO], Forum Jakarta–Paris, and Pusat Penelitian dan Pengembangan Arkeologi Nasional, 2008, p. 65)Google Scholar — or Sultan Abunashar Abdul Qahar (Pudjiastuti, Perang, p. 219). His given name was Abdul Kadir (Reid, Anthony, Southeast Asia in the age of commerce 1450–1680. Vol. 2. Expansion and crisis (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993), p. 294Google Scholar.

4 The inserted tale is quite similar to the nineteenth-century Sejarah Haji Mangsur (see Drewes, Gerardus W., ‘Short notice on the story of Haji Mangsur of Banten’, Archipel 50 [1995]: 119–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar), which Djajadiningrat, Hoesein, in Tinjauan kritis tentang Sajarah Banten: Sumbangan bagi pengenalan sifat-sifat penulisan sejarah Jawa (Jakarta: Jambatan, 1983, p. 15)Google Scholar, dismissed as both recent and of little historical value, which may be why it has been somewhat neglected. It has recently attracted attention, however, and will be the subject of a thesis entitled ‘Wawacan Sejarah Haji Mangsur: Kajian filologis’ by Eva Syarifah Warah at Universitas Pajajaran, Bandung.

5 See, e.g. Reid, Southeast Asia, vol. 2, pp. 28–81; Ricklefs, A history, pp. 95–8.

6 Pulo Putri is one of the Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Islands) in the Java Sea just north of Jakarta. It is also known variously as Pulo Mejeti (Drewes, ‘Short notice’, p. 119), Pulo Manjeti (Pudjiastuti, Perang, p. 263), or Pulo Majeti (http://humaspdg.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/mitos-mitos-yang-beredar-di-masyarakat-di-banten-kidul/ [last accessed 29 Oct. 2013]).

7 Djajadiningrat, Hoesein, Critische Beschouwing van de Sajarah Bantĕn: Bijdrage ter kenschetsing van de javaansche geschiedschrijving (Haarlem: Joh. Enschedé en Zonen, 1913)Google Scholar. Djajadiningrat's Tinjauan is an Indonesian translation of this work.

8 Djajadiningrat (Tinjauan, p. 218) calls the latter the Sajarah Bantĕn Rante-Rante, which he characterises as a collection of traditions. The two are also called the Sajarah Bantĕn Mayor and the Sajarah Bantĕn Minor (Pudjiastuti, Perang, pp. 218–70). See also Pudjiastuti, ‘Letter reading ceremony in Sajarah Banten text’, http://www.docstoc.com/docs/22206200/Letter-reading-Ceremony-in-Sajarah-Banten-text (last accessed 2 Oct. 2013).

9 Jannes H. Talens, ‘Een feodale samenleving in koloniaal vaarwater: Staatsvorming, koloniale expansie en economische ontwikkeling in Banten, West Java 1600–1750’ (Ph.D. diss., Universiteit van Utrecht, 1997).

10 Pudjiastuti, Perang, p. 219.

11 See also Ekadjati, E. Suhardi, Wawacan sejarah Galuh: Naskah dan dokumen Nusantara II (Jakarta: Lembaga Penelitian Perancis untuk Timur Jauh; Bandung: EFEO, 2004)Google Scholar and Suryadi, ‘Review of Titik Pudjiastuti, “Perang, dagang, persahabatan: Surat-surat Sultan Banten”’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 164, 4 (2008): 569–72Google Scholar.

12 Gonda, Jan, ‘Bhujanga’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië 89, 1 (1932): 253–60Google Scholar; Berg, Cornelis C., ‘Geschiedenis en geschiedschrijving van Mataram’, Indonesië 8 (1955): 232, 240, 246Google Scholar.

13 Bruinessen, Martin van, ‘Shari'a court, tarekat and pesantren: Religious institutions in the Banten Sultanate’, Archipel 50 (1995): 165–200Google Scholar; Talens, ‘Een feodale’, p. 22.

14 Pudjiastuti, Perang, pp. 305–7.

15 See also Suryadi, ‘Review’, p. 571, and Ekadjati, ‘Melacak naskah-naskah kuno sejarah Banten’, http://humaspdg.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/melacak-naskah-naskah-kuno-banten/ (last accessed 2 Oct. 2013).

16 Roy [sic], http://serang-banten.blogspot.nl/2009/08/silsilah-sultan-banten.html (last accessed 5 Nov. 2013). Djajadiningrat (Tinjauan, p. 15) only mentions Sultan Muhyiddin Zainussalihin, claiming him to have been killed in 1804. Accepting this would eliminate the reign of Sultan Ishaq from 1801 to 1802, and that of Sultan Gemuk, and still places the writing of Pudjiastuti's manuscript in the early nineteenth century.

17 Mythical serpent guardians of the wealth of the earth; Stutley, Margaret and Stutley, James, Harper's dictionary of Hinduism: Its mythology, folklore, philosophy, literature, and history (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1984), p. 198Google Scholar. In the current myth, the India-derived naga has obviously been transformed into an Arab-derived jinn.

18 Olthof, Willem L., Babad Tanah Jawi: Javaanse rijkskroniek (Dordrecht: Foris, 1987), pp. 16–17, 80–82Google Scholar. Jordaan, Roy, ‘The mystery of Nyai Lara Kidul, Goddess of the Southern Ocean’, Archipel 28 (1984): 99–116CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wessing, Robert, ‘A princess from Sunda: Some aspects of Nyai Roro Kidul’, Asian Folklore Studies 56, 2 (1997): 317–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Gaudes, Růdiger, ‘Kaundinya, Preah Thaong, and the “Nāgi Somā”: Some aspects of a Cambodian legend’, Asian Folklore Studies 52, 2 (1933): 333–58Google Scholar.

20 Carr, Edward H., What is history? (London: Macmillan, 1961), p. 2Google Scholar.

21 Ibid., p. 24.

22 Berg, Cornelis C., ‘De zin der tweede Babad-Tanah-Jawi’, Indonesië 8 (1955): 368Google Scholar; Pudjiastuti, Perang, p. 282.

23 Ricklefs, Merle C., Jogjakarta under Sultan Mangkubumi 1749–1792: A history of the division of Java (London: Oxford University Press, 1974), p. 407Google Scholar.

24 Fischer, Walter R., Human communication as narration: Toward a philosophy of reason, value, and action (Chapel Hill: University of South Carolina Press, 1987), p. xiGoogle Scholar.

25 Niles, John D., Homo narrans: The poetics and anthropology of oral literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), pp. 3, 8Google Scholar.

26 Geertz, Clifford, Local knowledge: Further essays in interpretive anthropology (New York: Basic Books, 1983), p. 157Google Scholar.

27 See Wessing, Robert, ‘Telling the landscape: Place and meaning in Sunda (West Java)’, Moussons 4 (2001): 33–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 Bruner, Jerome, Making stories: Law, literature, life (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 7Google Scholar; Fischer, Human communication, p. xi.

29 Austin, John L., How to do things with words (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975)Google Scholar.

30 See the German Geschichte or the French histoire, which mean both history and tale or story. Also historier, to recount, to narrate.

31 See for instance, Reid, Southeast Asia, vol. 2, pp. 280–81; Ricklefs, A history, pp. 95–8.

32 Colombijn, Freek, ‘De vroege staat Banten in de zeventiende eeuw’, Antropologische Verkenningen 8, 3 (1989): 9Google Scholar.

33 Hall, Kenneth R., Maritime trade and state development in early Southeast Asia (Honolulu: University of Hawaìi Press, 1985), pp. 13–14Google Scholar; Colombijn, Freek, ‘Foreign influence on the State of Banten, 1596–1682’, Indonesia Circle 18, 50 (1987): 20Google Scholar.

34 Colombijn, ‘Foreign influence’, p. 23.

35 de Jonge, Jan K.J., De opkomst van het Nederlandsch gezag over Java, vol. 3 ('s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff; Amsterdam: Frederik Muller, 1872), p. lxxviCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 ‘Especially considering the way the town Jacatra, which stood where Batavia was to arise, had been conquered and demolished’ (De Jonge, De opkomst, vol. 1 [1869]), p. cxiii.

37 “… uit Batavia's opgang volgt Bantam's ruïne”. De Jonge, De opkomst, vol. 3 (1872), p. lxxvi.

38 Earlier conflicts had occurred in 1619 and between 1633–1639. Atsushi, Ota, Changes of regime and social dynamics in West Java: Society, state and the outer world of Banten 1750–1830 (Leiden: Brill, 2006), p. 17Google Scholar; Colombijn, ‘De vroege’, p. 10.

39 De Jonge, De opkomst, vol. 3 (1872), p. lxxvi.

40 Atsushi, Changes, p. 17.

41 Talens, ‘Een feodale’, p. 204.

42 Kathirithamby-Wells, Jeyamalar, ‘Banten: A West Indonesian port and polity during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries’, in The Southeast Asian port and polity: Rise and demise, ed. Kathirithamby-Wells, J. and Villiers, John (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1990), pp. 117–18Google Scholar.

43 Talens, ‘Een feodale’, pp. 1, 75; Atsushi, Changes, p. 17; De Jonge, De Opkomst, vol. 4 (1873), p. cxiii.

44 The dates given for Sultan Haji's reign vary. Colombijn, ‘De vroege’, p. 4, writes that he was co-ruler from 1671 while Van Bruinessen, ‘Shari'a’, p. 171, gives 1680 as the advent of his rule, and Rosidi, Ajip et al. , Ensiklopedi Sunda: Alam, manusia, dan budaya, termasuk budaya Cirebon dan Betawi (Jakarta: Pustaka Jaya, 2000), p. 614Google Scholar, maintain as a starting date his appointment by the Dutch in 1682, following his father's defeat. Talens, ‘Een feodale’, pp. 75, 101. This last date is in any case when he became sole ruler of Bantĕn and is also the year that Bantĕn lost its autonomy (Colombijn, ‘De vroege’, pp. 4, 11).

45 De Jonge, De opkomst, vol. 4 (1873), p. cxiii.

46 Ibid., p. cxii; Talens, ‘Een feodale’, p. 75. Sultan Agĕng is said to have given the co-rulership to the crown prince's younger brother while the former was away on the hajj (Rosidi et al., Ensiklopedi, p. 614). Whether this is true or not, the rivalry between the two brothers seems to have been stirred up by the VOC; De Jonge, De opkomst, vol. 4 (1873), pp. cxxxi–cxxxiv.

47 Talens, ‘Een feodale’, pp. 75–6.

48 Talens, ‘Een feodale’, pp. 76, 80, 126.

49 de Graaf, Hermanus J., Geschiedenis van Indonesië ('s-Gravenhage and Bandoeng: W. Van Hoeve, 1949), p. 230Google Scholar.

50 Atsushi, Changes, p. 226.

51 See De Jonge, De opkomst, vol. 8 (1883), pp. 206–17.

52 Ricklefs, A history, pp. 95–8; Reid, Southeast Asia, vol. 2, pp. 249, 280; Talens, ‘Een feodale’, p. 1.

53 Talens, ‘Een feodale’, p. 134; Van Bruinessen, ‘Shari'a’, p. 172.

54 http://humaspdg.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/mitos-mitos-yang-beredar-di-masyarakat-di-banten-kidul (last accessed 29 Oct. 2013).

55 Pudjiastuti, Perang, pp. 261–5.

56 English translation by Robert Wessing.

57 Pupuh is a type of metre used in poetry recitation (Hardjadibrata, Rabindranat, Sundanese–English dictionary, Jakarta: Pustaka Jaya, 2003, p. 648)Google Scholar. The story is divided into seven pupuh.

58 Footnote 20 and other footnotes in the original text give alternate names for some of these figures. Since these are not relevant to the current analysis they are omitted here.

59 Pudjiastuti consistently writes Sultan Agung, which is not correct.

60 Note the change from Abdul Kadir.

61 According to Rosidi et al., Ensiklopedi, p. 614, Sultan Agĕng told his son to undertake the pilgrimage in 1674.

62 Note the switch from Pangeran Dakar to Sultan Haji. Drewes, ‘Short notice’, p. 119, has him change his name to Pangeran Haji at the start of his pilgrimage.

63 Drewes, ‘Short notice’, p. 120, calls the robe Pangeran Dakar's dowry.

64 Drewes, ibid., writes that they were identical, like ‘two peas in a pod’, causing the jinn to be mistaken for Pangeran (Sultan) Haji.

65 Footnote 23 in Pudjiastuti's text says that Adlher Schmit is meant. An anonymous reader has suggested the possibility that this was Edelheer Smit.

66 In the story related by Drewes, ‘Short notice’, p. 120, the jinn had himself ‘acknowledged as Sultan Agung’, which does not make sense since Sultan Agĕng has just closed the port to him.

67 See the picture of the gate to Bantĕn in Guillot, Banten, p. 168.

68 In this and the last two pupuh, the Sajarah Bantĕn Kecil introduces a number of new characters. These, while part of the original text, are not relevant to the story analysed here, and will thus not be explained further. They do, however, show the recent date of this recension of the Sajarah Bantĕn Kecil.

69 The sacred spring at Mecca's mosque, whose water is attributed to have purifying and healing powers. Hurgronje, Christiaan Snouck, Verspreide geschriften van C. Snouck-Hurgronje, vol. 3 (Bonn and Leipzig: Kurt Schroeder, 1923), pp. 37, 39–40Google Scholar; vol. 4 (1924), p. 191. Compare http://hafizamri.com/kelebihan-dan-keajaiban-air-zam-zam/ and http://www.imtiyaztravel.com/khasiat_air_zam_zam.htm (both last accessed 1 June 2012).

70 Djajadiningrat, Tinjauan, p. 14, mentions that Sultan Haji returned to Cimanuk in Bantĕn under the name Haji Mansur (or Mangsur), but does not include the return to Mecca and the dive into the zam-zam spring. Drewes, ‘Short notice’, p. 121, has Pangeran Haji trying to return to Bantĕn, but instead ending up in Egypt where a haji gave him ‘his own simple clothes’. After a long stay in Egypt Pangeran Haji returned to Mecca where he entered the zam-zam spring which returned him to Bantĕn. Feeling ashamed, he did not stop at his father's house but went on, eventually reaching Cikaduön where he changed his name to Haji Mangsur.

71 The fat or chubby sultan.

72 The Sultan's adik, which could be a younger sibling, or even a cousin from a junior line.

73 Persaudaraan, lit. brotherhood or family.

74 This is borne out by the time of its production. The conflict between Sultan Agĕng and Sultan Haji occurred in the late seventeenth century, and the above account was written in the Bantĕn dialect of Javanese on paper that was first produced in the first half of the eighteenth century (Pudjiastuti, Perang, pp. 226–7, 278). As observed earlier, however, the narrative contained in the final three pupuh suggest an even later date for this version. A slightly different version of these events can be found in http://humaspdg.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/mitos-mitis-yang-beredar-di-masyarakat-di-banten-kidul (last accessed 29 Oct. 2013). Here the jinn maiden is just said to be a pretty girl, and it is she who demands to be given Sultan Haji's clothes and insignia, which she then gives to her older brother to carry out his nefarious plans. Djajadiningrat (Tinjauan, p. 14) also does not mention that the person masquerading as Pangeran Dakar was a jinn. He characterises him as a foreigner from Pulo Putri.

75 Kathirithamby-Wells, ‘Banten’, p. 115.

76 De Graaf, Geschiedenis, pp. 230–31.

77 See Van Bruinessen, ‘Shari'a’, p. 166.

78 Wessing, Robert, ‘A change in the forest: Myth and history in West Java’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 24, 1 (1993): 1–17Google Scholar.

79 According to Schrieke, this was a princess of the West Javanese kingdom of Pajajaran, which Hassanuddin had defeated. Since his father, Sunan Gunungjati, had also married such a princess, this gave him and his descendants a claim to the (cosmological) legitimacy of Pajajaran. Schrieke, Bernard, Indonesian sociological studies, part 2: Ruler and realm in early Java (The Hague and Bandung: W. van Hoeve, 1957), p. 14Google Scholar.

80 Kathirithamby-Wells, ‘Banten’, p. 109.

81 De Graaf, Geschiedenis, p. 230. This is not to say that Sultan Agĕng was a ‘better’ Muslim than Sultan Haji, but only that they accessed their relationship with non-believers differently. Appearing to be ‘more Muslim’ than the other seems to have been a political strategy; See De Jonge, De opkomst, vol. 3 (1872), p. lxxvi; vol. 4, p. cxiii.

82 Schrieke, Indonesian, p. 12; Berg, ‘De zin’, pp. 375, 378. Ricklefs, Jogjakarta, pp. 369–408, relates a myth in which the Dutch became the heirs to the cosmological legitimacy of the Sundanese kingdom of Pajajaran by having one of their number marry the daughter of a Pajajaran princess and a holy man (ajar). Ken Dedes-like, this daughter was marked by flaming genitals, making intercourse with her impossible for anyone not destined to be a ruler. She did become pregnant by the Dutchman who bought her, and gave birth to a son, Mur Jangkung, a pseudonym for the hard-handed governor-general, Jan Pieterz. Coen, who is remembered for, among other things, his conquest of Jakarta (Batavia). De Jonge, De opkomst, vol. 1 (1869), pp. cxiii–cxiv.

83 See Wessing, Robert, ‘Porous boundaries: Addressing calamities in East Java, Indonesia’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land en Volkenkunde 166, 1 (2010): 49–82Google Scholar.

84 Schrieke, Indonesian, pp. 12–13.

85 Guillot, Banten, p. 213; Reid, Southeast Asia, p. 249.

86 Robson, Stuart and Wibisono, Singgih, Javanese–English dictionary (Hong Kong: Periplus, 2002), p. 172Google Scholar; Hardjadibrata, Sundanese, p. 190. The word dakar derives from Arabic, but the term would likely have been familiar to people who had undertaken the pilgrimage to Mecca.

87 See Mandelbaum, David G., Women's seclusion and men's honor: Sex roles in North India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1988)Google Scholar.

88 Nihom, Max, ‘On attracting women and tantric initiation: Tilottamā and Hevajratantra II.v. 38–47 and L.vii.8–9’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 58, 3 (1995): 521–31Google Scholar.

89 Reid, Southeast Asia, pp. 162, 178. This fear seems to still exist in certain Islamic circles. Thus the protagonist in Shachree M. Daroini's novel, Para gus (Yogyakarta: Alinea, 2004, p. 223), reflecting a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) point of view asks, ‘Is it not true that women are symbols of desire that must be kept at a distance, be prohibited to every part of the body. … In fact, even their gaze must be avoided, because that gaze is the devil. … Isn't it true that women are a bunch of idols that can turn people into heathens or turn them into polytheists?’ Trans. by Robert Wessing.

90 Robson and Wibisono, Javanese, p. 538; Harjadibrata, Sundanese, p. 588.

91 Or in lust, remembering the implications of the name Pangeran Dakar.

92 In her translation, Pudjiastuti (Perang, p. 262) uses menikah, the usual Indonesian word for marry. However, this word derives from Arabic (Winstedt, Richard O., An unabridged Malay–English dictionary, 5th ed., Kuala Lumpur, Marican & Sons, 1963, p. 245Google Scholar), and has Islamic connotations, which might not have been applicable in this relationship with the jinn maiden, even though, as Prof. Pudjiastuti kindly notes in an email, some jinn have become Muslim. This, however, was not necessarily the case with the jinn Raja Pandita, who was bent upon destroying the Sultanate of Bantĕn. The original manuscript, the email clarifies, uses the words krama and rabi, both of which mean ‘to marry’. Both are polite (krama and krama inggil) words (Albada, Rob van and Pigeaud, Theodoor G.T., Javaans–Nederlands woordenboek, Leiden: KITLV, 2007, p. 856Google Scholar), appropriate to the social status of both Sultan Haji and Raja Pandita, irrespective of their religious orientation.

Especially considering the dubious status of Pangeran Dakar's Muslim identity at the time, having shed his symbols of being a haji and having entered into a relationship with a jinn maiden, I wonder whether kawin, an Indonesian, Javanese, and Sundanese word for marriage, which can also just mean sexual intercourse, would not have been a more fitting translation. This, however, might have run into problems of social status, kawin being a lower status word, inappropriate to the social positions of the parties involved.

93 The informant's words were ‘turut wong Jawa’ (according to the Javanese). This is, of course, not to say that all Javanese adhere to this view: some merely pay lip service to religion, while to others it is a matter of profound faith; even amongst the latter significant differences may be found. Yet I heard the view outlined here stated in one form or another by many of my informants when matters of faith were being discussed.

94 Robson and Wibisono, Javanese, p. 43; Hardjadibrata, Sundanese, p. 26.

95 Robert Wessing, ‘A community of spirits: People, Ancestors and nature spirits in Java’, Crossroads 18 (2006): 78–80.

96 Wessing, ‘A change’, p. 5; compare Winstedt, R.O., ‘Kingship and enthronement in Malaya’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 3/4 (1945): 134–45Google Scholar.

97 Wessing, Robert and Barendregt, Bart, ‘Tending the spirit's shrine: Kanekes and Pajajaran in West Java’, Moussons 8 (2005): 3–26Google Scholar.

98 Kawuryan, Megandaru W., Kamus lengkap Jawa–Indonesia Indonesia–Jawa (Bantul: Bahtera Pustaka, 2006), p. 336Google Scholar. The meaning of pilgrim is from the Arabic haji while the meaning of king is original Javanese. Zoetmulder, Petrus J., Old Javanese–English Dictionary, vol. 1 (‘S-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1982), p. 572Google Scholar.

99 Compare Hardjadibrata, Sundanese, pp. 10, 298. Also talisman or amulet, from the Arabic ‘azimah. Djajadiningrat, Atjèhsch–Nederlandsch woordenboek, vol. 1 (Batavia: Landsdrukkerij, 1934), p. 16Google Scholar. See also Robson and Wibisono, Javanese, pp. 29–30, although they do not gloss haji with king.

100 The case of Mataram would seem to be an exception. But there too an Islamic proselytiser, Sunan Kalijaga, warns Panembahan Senapati to fear God, and to not just rely on the Goddess of the Southern Ocean, Nyai Rara Kidul. Olthof, Babad, p. 82.

101 Marwoto, Ayu Sutarto and Saputra, Heru, Mutiara yang tersisa I: Kearifan local dalam cerita rakyat Madura (Jember: Kompyawisda Jatim, 2010), pp. 10–12, 43Google Scholar.

102 As such they are parallels of Mt. Meru, also a source of fertility and power. See Mabbett, Ian W., ‘The symbolism of mount Meru’, History of religions 23 (1983): 64–83Google Scholar.

103 Compare Ekadjati, Wawacan, pp. xxxi–xxxvii. This idea is not restricted to Islamic states, being found in Hindu ones as well. See Hara, Minoru, ‘The king as a husband of the earth’, Asiatische Studien. Zeitschrift der schweitzerichen Gesellschaft fȕr Asienkunde 27 (1973): 97–114Google Scholar.

104 Geertz, Clifford, Negara: The theatre state in nineteenth century Bali (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980)Google Scholar.

105 Pudjiastuti, Perang, p. 270, proposes that blaming the jinn was an attempt to exonerate Sultan Haji/Pangeran Dakar.