The Burial of Ghosts

[A. G. Maisey]

During the last couple of weeks I have had three emails from three different people whom I believe do not know one another. At least I am certain that two of them do not know each other.

These people have drawn my attention to a thread in this forum which I had forgotten about, and all have asked me essentially the same question:-

"even though you said in that thread that you would no longer reply to any posts from Ganjawulung, how could you allow him to call you a liar and to act in such a blind and arrogant way without responding? "

I have replied to these three people that I probably didn't even read the thread after I had said I had no further interest, and that if I did, I would not have responded to the insults in any case.

One of these people who emailed me asked if I actually had proof that Empu Suparman had said to me that "buntel mayit" was wrong, and that "buntel mayat" was the correct name, for instance, had I recorded the conversation? I replied that I had not made recordings, but that I always keep notebooks of information gained in respect of keris.

It has taken me a couple of hours to find my original notebook entry in relation to what Empu Suparman said to me in relation to this pamor motif, and I provide here photos of the page in the notebook. This entry was made on Thursday 26 February 1987, in Kampung Komplang, Solo.

I apologise for not recording the entire contents of the conversation that occurred, but when these notes were made this was only one very minor piece of information amongst many pieces of information that I regarded as very much more important. I did not envisage that 20 years later I would need to demonstrate that I was not lying.

Here is a link to the thread:-

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/printt...p?t=4662&pp=40

I don't know how they found this thread, because I've tried to find it using the search function in the forum, and I cannot go back far enough. The net has a very long memory.

Hopefully this will answer those who may have thought that I was inventing things to suit my own ends.

Anybody who cares to make an appointment with me can inspect the notebook concerned in person, and anybody who doubts my connection with Empu Suparman is welcome to inspect relevant entries in his dairies, which were bequeathed to me when he passed away.

Incidentally, the "P.P." in my notes refers to Pak Parman, which is how I addressed Empu Suparman.