"There are, however, they say, one or two omissions; instead of one
tiger there were two, the real harimau kramat and an ambitious young
tiger who would also follow the Princess in her round of visits. This
brute came to an untimely and ignominious end (as he deserved to) at
the hands of one Innes, who was disturbed whilst reading a newspaper,
and this can be verified by Captain Syers.
"The other tiger jogged along gaily with his phantom mistress, and
made night hideous with his howlings and prowlings all about the
Jugra Hill. He was really kramat, and was said to have been shot at
by several Malays, and the present Sergeant-Major Allie, now stationed
at Kuala Lumpur, can vouch for this." [297]
I myself collected at the time the following extra details:--
"The local version of the legend about the kramat at the foot of Jugra
Hill runs somewhat as follows:--Once upon a time one Nakhoda Ragam was
travelling with his wife (who is apparently to be identified with the
Princess of Malacca, Tuan Putri Gunong Ledang) in a boat (sampan),
when the latter pricked him to death with a needle (mati di-chuchok
jarum). His blood flooded the boat (darah-nya hanyut dalam sampan),
and presently the woman in the boat was hailed by a vessel sailing
past her. 'What have you got in that boat?' said the master of the
vessel, and the Princess replied: 'It is only spinach-juice' (kuah
bayam). She was therefore allowed to proceed, and landed at the foot
of Jugra Hill, where she buried all that yet remained of her husband,
which consisted of only one thigh (paha). [298] She also took ashore
her two cats, which were in the boat with her, and which, turning into
ghost tigers, became the guardians of this now famous shrine." [299]
Tigers are naturally too fierce to be tracked by the Malays, and
are usually caught in specially constructed traps (penjara rimau),
or killed by a self-acting gun or spear-trap (b'lantek s'napang,
b'lantek terbang, b'lantek parap, etc.); but even in this case the
Pawang explains to the tiger that it was not he but Muhammad who set
the trap. There are, however, as might be expected, a great number of
charms intended to protect the devotee in various ways from the tiger's
claws and teeth. Of these I will give one or two typical specimens.
Sometimes a charm is used to keep the tiger at a distance (penjauh
rimau):--
"Ho, Bersenu! Ho, Berkaih!
I know the origin from which you sprang;
(It was) Sheikh Abuniah Lahah Abu Kasap.
Your navel originated from the centre of your crown,
Your breasts are [to be seen] in [the spoor of] your
fore-feet. [300]
May you go wide (of me) as the Seven Tiers of Heaven,
May you go wide (of me) as the Seven Tiers of Earth;
If you do not go wide,
You shall be a rebel unto God," etc.
Sometimes the desired effect is expected to be obtained by a charm
for locking the tiger's jaws:--
"Ho, Sir Cruncher! Ho, Sir Muncher!
Let the twig break under the weight of the wild goose.
Fast shut and locked be (your jaws), by virtue of `Ali Mustapah,
OM. Thus I break (the tusks of) all beasts that are tusked,
By virtue of this Prayer from the Land of Siam." [301]
The next specimen is described as a "charm for fascinating" (striking
fear into) a "tiger and hardening one's own heart":--
"O Earth-Shaker, rumble and quake!
Let iron needles be my body-hairs,
Let copper needles be my body-hairs!
Let poisonous snakes be my beard,
A crocodile my tongue,
And a roaring tiger in the dimple of my chin.
Be my voice the trumpet of an elephant,
Yea, like unto the roar of the thunderbolt.
May your lips be fast closed and your teeth clenched;
And not till the Heavens and the Earth are moved
May your heart be moved
To be wroth with or to seek to destroy me.
By the virtue of 'There is no god but God,'" etc.
To which may be added--
"Kun! Payah Kun!
Let (celestial) splendour reside in my person.
Whosoever talks of encountering me,
A cunning Lion shall be his opponent.
O all ye Things that have life
Endure not to confront my gaze!
It is I who shall confront the gaze of you,
By the virtue of 'There is no god but God.'"
When tigers were wounded, it was said (in Selangor) that they would
doctor themselves with ubat tasak, which is the name generally
given to a sort of poultice used by those who have just undergone
circumcision. And when a tiger was killed a sort of public reception
was formerly always accorded to him on his return to the village.
Though I have not seen the actual reception (generally miscalled a
"wake"), I once saw near Kajang in Selangor a tiger which had been
prepared for the ceremony. The animal was propped up on all fours
as if alive, and his mouth kept open by propping the roof with a
stick. It was unfortunately impossible for me to wait for the ceremony,
but from a description which I received afterwards, it was evidently
regarded as a sort of "reception" given by the people of the village
to a live and powerful war-chief or champion (hulubalang) who had
come to pay them a visit, the dancing and fencing which takes place
on such occasions being intended for his entertainment.
One of these ceremonies, which took place in Jugra in Selangor,
was thus described:--
A Tiger's Wake
"At 10 A.M. a great noise of rejoicing, with drums and gongs,
approaching Jugra by the river, was heard, and on my questioning
the people, I was told Raja Yakob had managed to shoot a tiger
with a spring gun behind Jugra Hill, and was bringing it in state
to the Sultan. I went over to the Sultan's at Raja Yakob's request
to see the attendants on the slaughter of a tiger. The animal was
supported by posts and fastened in an attitude as nearly as possible
approaching the living. Its mouth was forced open, its tongue allowed
to drop on one side, and a small rattan attached to its upper jaw was
passed over a pole held by a man behind. This finished, two swords
were produced and placed crosswise, and a couple of Panglimas [302]
selected for the dance; the gongs and drums were beaten at a quick
time, the man holding the rattan attached to the tiger's head pulled
it, moving the head up and down, and the two Panglimas, after making
their obeisance to the Sultan, rushed at their swords, and holding
them in their hands commenced a most wild and exciting dance. They
spun around on one leg, waving their swords, then bounded forward and
made a thrust at the tiger, moving back quickly with the point of the
weapon facing the animal; they crawled along the ground and sprung over
it uttering defiant yells, they cut and parried at supposed attacks,
finally throwing down their weapons and taunting the dead beast by
dancing before it unarmed. This done, Inas told me the carcase was
at my disposal.
"The death of the tiger now establishes the fact of the existence
of tigers here, for asserting which I have been pretty frequently
laughed at. However this is not the Jugra pest, a brute whose death
would be matter for general rejoicing, the one now destroyed being
a tigress 8 feet long and 2 feet 8 inches high." [303]
I may add that both the claws and whiskers of tigers are greatly
sought after as charms, and are almost invariably stolen from a tiger
when one is killed by a European. I have also seen at Klang a charm
written on tiger's skin.
The Deer [304]
Anthropomorphic ideas are held by the Malays almost as strongly in
the case of the Deer as of any other animal.
The Deer is, by all Malays, believed to have sprung from a man who
suffered from a severe ulcer or abscess (chabuk) on the leg, (which
is supposed to have left its trace on the deer's legs to this day). Of
the Perak form of this legend Sir William Maxwell writes as follows:--
"The deer (rusa) is sometimes believed to be the metamorphosed body
of a man who has died of an abscess in the leg (chabuk), because it
has marks on the legs which are supposed to resemble those caused by
the disease mentioned. Of course there are not wanting men ready to
declare that the body of a man who has died of chabuk has been seen
to rise from the grave and to go away into the forest in the shape
of a deer." [305]
The Selangor legend is practically identical with that current
in Perak.
The deer are frequently addressed, in the charms used by the hunters,
exactly as if they were human beings, e.g.--
"If you wish to wear bracelets and rings
Stretch out your two fore-feet."
These rings and bracelets are of course the nooses which depend from
the toils.
In a charm of similar import we find:--
"Ho, Crown Prince (Raja Muda) with your Speckled Princess
(Putri Dandi),
Rouse you quickly (from your slumbers)
And clasp (round your neck) King Solomon's necklace."
I may add that in some places the Pawang (magician) will himself first
enter the toils, probably with the object of deceiving the stag as
to their nature and purpose.
The ceremonies for hunting deer are somewhat intricate, and it
will perhaps be best to commence by giving a general description of
deer-catching as practised by the Malays.
"This pastime" [306] (deer-catching) "is one the Malay delights
in. After a rainy night, deer may be easily traced to their lair by
their footprints, and as they remain stationary by day the hunters
have ample time to arrange their apparatus. When the hiding-place
is discovered all the young men of the kampong [307] assemble,
and the following ceremony is performed before they sally out on
the expedition: Six or eight coils of rattan rope, about an inch in
diameter, are placed on a triangle formed with three rice-pounders,
and the oldest of the company, usually an experienced sportsman, places
a cocoa-nut shell filled with burning incense in the centre, and taking
sprigs of three bushes, viz. the jellatang, sapunie, and sambon [308]
plants (these, it is supposed, possess extraordinary virtues), he
walks mysteriously round the coils, beating them with the sprigs, and
erewhile muttering some gibberish, which, if possessing any meaning,
the sage keeps wisely to himself. During the ceremony the youths
of the village look on with becoming gravity and admiration. It is
believed that the absence of this ceremony would render the expedition
unsuccessful, the deer would prove too strong for the ropes, and the
wood demons frustrate their sport by placing insurmountable obstacles
in their way. Much faith appears to be placed in the ceremony. Each
coil referred to above is sixty to seventy fathoms long, and to the
rope running nooses, made also of rattan rope, are attached about
three feet apart from each other. On reaching the thicket wherein
the deer are concealed, stakes are driven into the ground a few
feet apart in a straight line, the coils are then opened out, and
the rope attached to the stakes, two or three feet above the ground,
with the nooses hanging down, and two of the party conceal themselves
near the stakes armed with knives for the purpose of despatching
the deer when entangled in the nooses. The remainder of the hunters
arrange themselves on the opposite side of the thicket and advance
towards it, shouting and yelling at the top of their voices. The deer,
startled from their rest, spring to their feet and naturally flee from
the noise towards the nooses, and in a short time are entangled in
them. As they struggle to escape, the concealed hunters rush out and
despatch them. Occasionally the flight is prolonged till the major
party arrives, and then the noble creatures soon fall beneath the
spears and knives of their assailants. The animal is divided between
the sportsmen." [309]
The "gibberish" employed by the deer Pawangs when the latter enter
the jungle is intended to induce the wood demons and earth demons to
recede, or at least to dissuade them from active interference with the
proceedings. Charms are also employed by the Pawang, as he proceeds,
from time to time, to "ask for" a tree (to which the toils may be
fastened); to "ask for" a deer; to unroll and suspend the toils; to
call upon the spirits (who are the herdsmen of the deer) to drive
the latter down to meet the dogs; to turn back the deer when they
have got away; to "prick" or urge on the dogs, or make them bark;
to stop wild dogs from barking in the jungle, or those of the pack
from barking at the wrong moment; to deceive the deer as to the
reality of the toils used by the hunters; to deceive the spirits as
to the identity of the hunting-party; and, finally, to drive out the
"mischief" (badi) from the carcase of the slain animal; examples of
all of which will be found in the course of the next few pages.
The first charm which I give is one used in "asking for deer":--
"Ho! master of me your slave, Sidi the Dim-eyed,
Si Lailanang and Si Laigan his brother,
Si Deripan, Si Baung, Si Bakar,
Si Songsang (Sir Topsy Turvy), Si Berhanyut (Sir Floater),
Si Pongking, Si Temungking!
I demand Deer, a male and a female,
Blunt-hoofed, hard-browed,
Long-eared, tight-waisted,
Shut-eyed, shaggy-maned, spotted;
If not the shut-eyed, the shaggy-maned and the spotted,
The "rascal," the starveling, the mere skeleton.
Most fervently we beg this boon, by the light of this very
same day,
By virtue of the 'kiraman katibin.' [310]
And here is the token of my petition." [311]
The directions proceed:--
"On first entering the jungle, say--
"Ho, Hantu Bakar, Jembalang Bakar,
Turn a little aside,
That I may let loose my body-guard."
(By which the "pack" is no doubt intended.)
"When you meet the slot, examine the slot. If it is a little shortened
on one side, the quarry is in some danger; if it has gone lame of
one hoof, it is a sign that it will be killed within seven days.
"After entering the jungle, and finding the dogs, wait for the dogs
to bark, and then give out this 'cooee'--
"Ho! Si Lanang, Si Lambaun,
Si Ketor, Si Becheh!
Ye Four Herdsmen of the Deer,
Come ye down to meet the dogs.
And refuse not to come down
Or ye shall be rebels unto God, etc.
It is not I who am huntsman,
It is Pawang Sidi (wizard Sidi) that is huntsman;
It is not I whose dogs these are,
It is Pawang Sakti (the 'magic wizard') whose dogs these are;
Let Dang Durai cross the water,
It is only a civet-cat that is left for me.
Grant this by virtue of my teacher, 'Toh Raja--
May his art be yet more powerful in my hands. [312]
By virtue of 'There is no god but God,'" etc.
A deer Pawang ('Che Indut) also gave me this charm for recital when
the support (lit. "shoulder") of the noose is being cut (for which
purpose it would appear that a young tree of the kind called "Delik"
is usually taken).
"The Delik's branches spread out horizontally (at the top), [313]
Chop at it, and it will produce roots.
Though its bark is destroyed, a cudgel is still left for people's
bones,
Even though it be worked on by the charm Kalinting Bakar." [314]
From the same source I obtained this charm, addressed to the Deer,
but intended for fixing the scent (menetapkan bau), and for suspending
the toils (memasang jerat):--
"Teng [315] [stands for] the satengteng flower,
Ascend ye the twin stream.
If you delight in bracelets and rings
Push forward your two fore-feet.
"When setting the nooses (bubohkan perindu jerat) say, addressing
the deer as before:--
"Be filled with yearning, be filled with longing,
As the Holy Basil grows even to a rock,
Be filled with yearning as you sit, be filled with yearning as
you go,
Fast-bound by love of this noose of mine."
The directions given me by another Pawang commenced with a charm for
emboldening the dogs, after which the account proceeds:--
"When you have finished (the charm referred to), take seven steps
forward, leaving the toils behind you, and standing erect, look
forward and call as follows:--
"O all ye Saids (lawful descendants of the Prophet),
Unto you, my Lords, belong the Deer,
Si Lambaun was the origin of the Deer,
Si Lanang is their Herdsman,
Drive ye the Deer into our toils.
This causeway of rock (titian batu) is your high road and
market-square,
The resort of innumerable people.
Follow, follow in long procession,
And let the "Assembly"-Flower unfold its petals.
Come in procession, come in succession,
Our toils have come to summon you to the spot.
Ho, Deer that are unfortunate, Deer that are curst,
Enter this path of mine which is empty of men.
On the left stand spearmen,
On the right stand spearmen,
And whichever of (those two) ways you go,
By that self-same way will you be turned back.
"Now proceed till you meet the stag, and as he rouses himself from
slumber, say:--
"Ho, Crown Prince with your Speckled Princess,
Rouse you in haste and slip on King Solomon's royal breast
ornament.
Receive it, receive it in your turn,
And do ye (huntsmen) shout 'Bi' again and again.
"[Here the spearmen right and left shout in concert.]
"So, too, when spearing the deer, say--
"It is not I who spear you,
It is Pawang Sidi who spears you.
"When you have secured a deer, flick (kebaskan) the carcase thrice
in a downward direction with a black cloth or with a leafy spray (if
you will), such as the deer feed upon, for instance with the sendayan
(or sendereian, a kind of sedge), or with fern-shoots, and call out:--
"O Si Lanang, Si Lambaun,
Si Ketor, Si Becheh, who are Four Persons,
Take back your own share (of the carcase). [316]
"Here 'take the representative parts, pierce them with a rattan line,
and suspend them from a tree.'"
But the fullest account of this ceremony (of driving out the mischief
from the carcase) runs as follows:--
"When you have caught the deer, cast out the mischief from it (buang
dia-punya badi). To effect this, take a black jacket such as can cast
out this mischief (if no black jacket is obtainable, take the branch
of any tree), and stroke (the carcase) from the head downwards to
the feet and the rump, saying as you do so:--
"Ho Badi Serang, Badi Mak Buta,
Si Panchor Mak Tuli,
It is not I who cast out these mischiefs,
It is the Junior Dogboy who casts them out.
It is not I who cast out these mischiefs,
It is the Dogboy Rukiah who casts them out.
It is not I who cast out these mischiefs,
It is Mukael [317] (Michael) who casts them out.
It is not I who cast out these mischiefs,
It is Israfel who casts them out.
It is not I who cast out these mischiefs,
It is Azrael who casts them out.
It is not I who cast out these mischiefs,
It is Mukarael (?) who casts them out.
I know the origin of these mischiefs,
They are the offspring of the Jin Ibni Ujan, [318]
Who dwell in the open spaces and hill-locked basins.
Return ye to your open spaces and hill-locked basins,
And do me no harm or scathe.
I know the origin from which you spring,
From the offspring of the Jin Ibni Ujan do ye spring.
"Here take small portions of his eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hind-feet,
fore-feet, hair (of his coat), liver, heart, spleen and horns (if it
be a stag), wrap them up in a leaf, and deposit them in the slot of
his approaching tracks, saying: 'O Mentala (Batara) Guru, one a month,
two a month, three a month, four a month, five a month, six a month,
seven a month (be the deer which fall) by night to you, by day to
me. One deer I take with me, and one I leave behind.'"
A deer Pawang named 'Che Indut gave me a charm for turning the deer
back upon their tracks, "though their flesh was torn to rags and their
bones well-becudgelled." It concluded with the following appeal to
the spirits:--
"Ho (ye Spirits) turn back my Deer!
If you do not turn them back,
At sea ye shall get no drink,
Ashore ye shall find no food.
By virtue of the word of God," etc.
I will conclude with the following charm, believed to be a means of
bringing the stag low:--
"Measure off three sticks (probably dead wood taken from the slot of
the deer, as in the case of the elephant), their length being measured
by the distance from the roof of your mouth to the teeth of the lower
jaw. Lay these sticks in a triangular form inside the slot of the
stag, press the left thumb downwards in the centre of the triangle,
and humble your heart. This will humble the deer's heart too."
The Mouse-deer or chevrotin is the "Brer Rabbit" of the Malays. It
figures in many proverbial sayings and romances, in which it is
credited with extraordinary sagacity, and is honoured by the title of
"Mentri B'lukar," the "Vizier of the (secondary) Forest-Growth." [319]
It is generally taken by means of a snare called tapah pelandok, but
sometimes by tapping on the ground with sticks (mengetok pelandok),
the sound of which is supposed to imitate the drumming of the buck's
fore-feet upon the ground in rutting-time, by which the attention of
the doe is attracted. Whatever the reason may be, there is no doubt
that the method is often successful.
When this "tapping" method is adopted, the charms used are similar
to those used for calling the big deer, e.g.--
"Arak-arak iring-iring
Kembang bunga si Panggil-Panggil,
Datang berarak, datang beriring,
Raja Suleiman datang memanggil.
Follow in procession, follow in succession,
The Assembly-flower has opened its petals.
Come in procession, come in succession,
King Solomon comes to summon you."
But at the end of the charm is added, "Ini-lah gong-nya," i.e. "This
is his (King Solomon's) gong."
The stick which is used may be of any kind of wood except a creeper,
and the best place for the operation is where the ground sounds
hollow when tapped. Either three, five, or seven leaves must, however,
be laid on the spot before the tapping is commenced.
The directions for setting the snare (jerat or tapah pelandok) were
taken down by me as follows:--
First look for a tree whose sap is viscid, and chop at it thrice
(with a cutlass). If the splinters fall, one the right and the other
the wrong way up (lit. one prone and the other supine), it is a bad
sign (though it is a good sign when one is setting a trap); for in
the case of a snare they must fall the wrong way up (supine).
When this is done, commence to set the snare near the foot of a tree,
at about a fathom's distance, and say:--
"As a cocoa-nut shell rocks to and fro
When filled with clay,
Avaunt ye, Jembalang and Badi,
That I may set this snare."
Next you say:--
"Ho, Sir 'Pointed-Hoof,'
Sir 'Sharp-Muzzle,'
Do you step upon this snare that I have spread
Within two days or three.
If you do not step upon this snare that I have spread
Within two days or three,
You shall be choked to death with blood in your throat,
You shall be in sore straits within the limits of your own
Big Jungle.
At sea you shall get no drink,
Ashore you shall get no food,
By virtue of," etc.
Hunting-Dogs
Hunting-dogs are spoken to continually as if they were human
beings. Several examples of this occur in the deer charms.
Thus we find the following passage addressed to the dogs:--
"Let not go the scent,
Formidable were you from the first;
Hot-foot, hot-foot, do you pursue,
If you do not pursue hot-foot,
I will minimise my benediction (lit. my 'Peace be with you').
If it (the deer) be a buck, you shall have him for a brother;
If it be a doe, you shall have her for a wife."
So too, again, after calling several dogs by name, the Pawang gets
together the accessories (leaves of the tukas and lenjuang, a brush
of leaves (sa-cherek) and a black cloth), and exclaims:--
"Bark, Sir Slender-foot; bark, Sir Brush-tail."
The Pawang generally tries to deceive the deer as to his ownership
of the hunting-dogs. Thus he will say:--
"It is not I whose dogs these are,
It is the magical deer Pawang whose dogs these are."
So, too, they are called by certain specific names (according to
their breed and colour), which are in several cases identical with
the names of the dogs with which the wild Spectre Huntsman (the
most terrible of all personified diseases in the Malay category)
hunts down his prey. [320]
Ugliness is by no means looked upon as a disadvantage, but rather
the opposite. An ugly dog is apparently formidable. Thus we find a
dog addressed as follows:--
"Let not go the scent (of the quarry)
As you were formidable (lit. ugly) [321] from the first."
Again, the description of the "good points" of some of these dogs
which is given in the Appendix would, if ugliness and formidability are
convertible terms, satisfy the most exacting whipper-in, the so-called
good points being for the most part a mere list of deformities. These
points, however, are merely the external sign of the Luck to which
dogs, as well as human beings, are believed to be born. In a fine
passage we are told:--
"From the seven Hills and the seven Valleys
Comes the intense barking of my Dogs.
My Dogs are Dogs of Luck,
Not Luck that is adventitious,
But Luck incarnate with their bodies.
Go tread upon the heaped and rotting leaves,
And never desert the scent."
Speaking of dog-lore generally, it may be remarked that though dogs
are very frequently kept by the Malays, it is considered unlucky to
keep them. "The dog ... is unlucky. He longs for the death of his
master, an event which will involve the slaying of animals at the
funeral feast, when the bones will fall to the dogs. When a dog is
heard howling at night, he is supposed to be thinking of the broken
bones (niat handak mengutib tulang patah)." [322]
Even the wild dogs in the jungle [323] are warned not to bark, and
are addressed as if they were human:--
"If you bark your windpipe shall burst,
If you smack your lips your tongue shall be docked.
If you come nearer, you shall break your leg;
Return to the big virgin jungle,
Return to your caverns and hill-locked basins,
To the stream which has no head-waters,
To the pond which was never dug,
To the waters which bear no passengers,
To the fountain-head which is [never] dry.
If you do not return, you shall die,
Cursed by the First Pen (i.e. the Human Tongue),
Pierced by the twig of a gomuti-palm, [324]
Impaled by a palm thatch-needle,
Transfixed by a porcupine's quill."
Bears and Monkeys
"The Bear [325] is believed to be the mortal foe of the Tiger, which
he sometimes defeats in single combat. (Bruang, the Malay word for
'bear,' has a curious resemblance to our word 'Bruin.' [326]) A story
is told of a tame bear which a Malay left in charge of his house and
of his sleeping child while he was absent from home. On his return
he missed his child, the house was in disorder, as if some struggle
had taken place, and the bear was covered with blood. Hastily drawing
the conclusion that the bear had killed and devoured the child, the
enraged father slew the animal with his spear, but almost immediately
afterwards he found the carcase of a tiger, which the faithful
bear had defeated and killed, and the child emerged unharmed from
the jungle, where she had taken refuge. It is unnecessary to point
out the similarity of this story to the legend of Beth-Gelert. It
is evidently a local version of the story of the Ichneumon and the
Snake in the Pancha-tantra." [327]
Monkeys and men have always been associated in native tradition,
and Malay folklore is no exception to the rule. Thus we get the
tradition of the great man-like ape, the Mawas (a reminiscence of
the orang-outang or mias of Borneo), which is said to make shelters
for itself in the forks of trees, and to be born with the blade of a
cutlass (woodknife) in place of the bone of the forearm, so that it is
able to cut down the undergrowth as it walks through the jungle. It
is believed, moreover, occasionally to carry off and mate with human
kind. [328]
The Siamang (Hylobates lar), [329] which walks on its hind-legs, is,
however, the species which is most commonly associated in legend with
the human race; in fact, it is not impossible that there may sometimes
have been a confusion between its name (siamang) and Semang, which is
the name of one of the aboriginal (Negrito) races of the interior. The
following Malay legend, which I took down at Labu in Selangor is
believed to explain its origin, and also that of the Bear: [330]--
Once upon a time her Highness the Princess Telan became the affianced
bride of Si Malim Bongsu. After the betrothal Si Malim Bongsu sailed
away and did not return when the period of the engagement, which was
fixed at from three to four months, came to an end.
Then Si Malim Panjang, elder brother of Si Malim Bongsu, decided to
take the place of his younger brother, and be married to the Princess
Telan. The latter, however, repelled his advances, and he therefore
attacked her savagely; but she turned herself into an ape (siamang)
and escaped to the jungle, so that Si Malim Panjang desisted from
pursuit. Then the ape climbed up into a pagar-anak tree which grew
on the sea-shore, and leaned over the sea, and there she chanted
these words:--
"O my dear Malim Bongsu,
You have broken your solemn promise and engagement,
And I have to take upon myself the form of an ape."
Now Si Malim Bongsu was passing at the time, and on recognising the
voice of the Princess Telan he took a blow-gun and shot her so that
she fell into the sea. Then he took rose-water and sprinkled it over
her, so that she resumed her natural shape, and they started to go
home together. Still, however, Si Malim Bongsu would not wed her, but
promised that he would do so when he came back from his next voyage,
whereupon the Princess chanted these words:--
"If you do not return within three months
You will find me turned into an ape."
The same course of events, however, happened as before. Malim Bongsu
did not return at the time appointed; his elder brother, Malim Panjang
once more attacked her, and, leaping towards an areca palm, she once
more became an ape, whereupon she chanted as before:--
"O my dear Malim Bongsu,
You have broken your solemn promise and engagement,
And I am forced to become an ape."
Again Malim Bongsu, as he passed by, heard and recognised her voice;
but upon learning that he had been for the second time the cause of
his Princess's troubles, he exclaimed, "Better were it for me were I
nothing but a big fish"; and leaping into the water he disappeared,
and was changed into a big fish as he desired.
Now the Princess's nurse (who was called "The Daughter of Sakembang
China") was at the same time transformed into a bear, and as they
were bathing at the time when they were surprised, and had not time
to wash off all the soap (rice-cosmetic), the white marks on the
breast and brows of the bear and on the breast and brows of the ape
(siamang) have remained unto this day.
Occasionally the opposite transformation is believed to take place,
some species of the monkey tribe being supposed to turn into fish.
Thus the k'ra (Macacus cynomolgus) is believed to develop into a
species of fish called senunggang, and of the fish called kalul (kalui
or kalue), Sir W. E. Maxwell writes: "The ikan kalul (is believed)
to be a monkey transformed. Some specially favoured observers have
seen monkeys half through the process of metamorphosis--half-monkey
and half-fish." [331] The species of monkey which is believed to
turn into the ikan kalul is, as I was told in Selangor, the b'rok or
"cocoa-nut monkey."
"Berhakim kapada brok" is a Malay proverbial expression which means,
"'To make the monkey judge,' or, 'to go to the monkey for justice.' A
fable is told by the Malays of two men, one of whom planted bananas
on the land of the other. When the fruit was ripe each claimed it,
but not being able to come to any settlement they referred the matter
to the arbitration of a monkey (of the large kind called brok). The
judge decided that the fruit must be divided; but no sooner was this
done than one of the suitors complained that the other's share was
too large. To satisfy him the monkey reduced the share of the other
by the requisite amount, which he ate himself. Then the second suitor
cried out that the share of the first was now too large. It had to be
reduced to satisfy him, the subtracted portion going to the monkey
as before. Thus they went on wrangling until the whole of the fruit
was gone, and there was nothing left to wrangle about. Malay judges,
if they are not calumniated, have been known to protract proceedings
until both sides have exhausted their means in bribes. In such cases
the unfortunate suitors are said to berhakim kapada brok." [332]
The Wild Pig and Other Animals
There are several superstitions about the Wild Boar which prove that
it was not always regarded as an unclean animal.
Of these the following recipe, which was given me by a Jugra (Selangor)
Malay, for turning brass into gold is the most remarkable:--
"Kill a wild pig and rip open its paunch. Sew up in this a quantity
of old 'scrap' brass, pile timber over it, burn it, and then leave
it alone until the grass has grown right over it. Then dig up the
gold." Again, certain wild boars are believed to carry on their tushes
a talisman of extraordinary power, which is called rantei babi, or
"Wild Boar's Chain." This chain consists, it is asserted, of three
links of various metals (gold, silver, and amalgam), and is hung up
on a shrub by the wild boar when he is enjoying his wallow, so that it
is occasionally stolen by Malays who know his habits. I may add that,
according to a Malay at Langat, the "were-tiger" (rimau jadi-jadian)
occasionally appears in the shape of a wild boar escaping from a grave,
in the centre of which may be afterwards seen the hole by which the animal has escaped. |
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