Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and...

‘O Mĕntala (i.e. Batara) Guru, and Teachers one and all (dĕngan Gurwuru-uru), and Sir Yellow Glow,

Sir Yellow Glow knows all the ins and outs of it (?)

These toils of ours are twofold, O let them not be staled.

If they are staled, and we perform the penance for them, let our toils still kill the quarry.

If they are staled by the dogs, let our toils still kill the quarry.

If they are staled by men, let our toils still kill the quarry, by virtue of,’ etc., etc.”

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106 Probably a pun upon teng, which was explained to me as meaning kaki sa-b’lah (“one foot only”), as in bĕrteng-teng, “to go on one foot,” to hobble; tengkis, “with one foot shortened or shrunken,” etc. The “satengteng flower” was explained as another name for the satawar. ↑

107 The corresponding charm for driving out the mischief, given by another deer Pawang (’Che Indut), appears to be more appropriate:—

O Mischief, Mother of Mischiefs,

Mischiefs One Hundred and Ninety (in number),

I know the origin from which you sprang.

The mischief of an Iguana was your origin.

The Heart of Timber was your origin,

The Yellow Glow of Sunset was your origin,

Return to the places from whence ye came,

Do me no harm or scathe.

If you do me harm or scathe, ye shall be consumed by the curse,

Eaten and enclosed in Disaster (bintongan), crushed to death by the Thirty Divisions of the Korān,

Smitten by the sanctity of the Four Corners of the Earth,

By virtue of, etc., etc.

Bintongan was explained to me carefully as = bĕnchana (calamity or disaster). ↑

108 This and the four succeeding names are evidently corruptions of the names of the four archangels, “Michael, Israfel, Azrael, and Gabriel.” Vide p. 98, supra. ↑

109Vide pp. 94, 95, note, supra. ↑

110 In the Pĕlandok Jinaka, a Malay beast-fable, the Mouse-deer is styled “Sheikh ʿalam (or Shah ʿalam) di Rimba,” “Chief (or King) of the Forest.” ↑

111Vide p. 117. ↑

112 Cp. our use of the phrase “an ugly customer,” vide App. lxxxi. ↑

113J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 7, p. 26. ↑

114 The wild dogs of the jungle are considered by Malays to be not natural dogs, but “ghost” dogs of the pack of the Spectre Huntsman. They are regarded as most dangerous to meet, for, according to a Malay informant, “if they bark at us, we shall assuredly die where we stand and shall not be able to return home; if, however, we see them and bark at them before they bark at us, we shall not be affected by them. Therefore do all Malays give tongue when they meet the wild dog in the forest.” ↑

115 Or Sugar-palm (Arenga saccharifera). ↑

116 “The Malayan Sun-bear, the only animal of the bear species in the Peninsula. It is also known as the Honey-bear, from its fondness for that sweet. It is black in colour, with the exception of a semi-lunar-shaped patch of white on the breast, and a yellowish-white patch on the snout and upper jaw. The fur is fine and glossy. Its feet are armed with formidable claws, and its lips and tongue are peculiarly long and flexible, all three organs adapting it to tear open and get at the apertures in old trees where the wild bees usually build.”—Denys, Descr. Dic. Brit. Mal., s.v. Bruang. ↑

117 Bruin is also the Dutch word for a bear. The Malay form Bĕruang has also been derived from ruang, which is assumed, for this occasion only, to mean a “cave,” in order that Bĕruang may be explained as meaning the cave-animal. There is no evidence, however, to show that ruang ever did mean a cave, nor is the Malay bear a cave-animal. ↑

118J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 7, p. 23. ↑

119 Cp. Cliff., Stud. in Brown Hum. p. 243 seqq. (The Strange Elopement of Chaling the Dyak). ↑

120 There seems to be some doubt as to the scientific nomenclature properly applicable to the Siamang.

The following is a specimen of a monkey legend: “A little farther up-stream two rocks facing each other, one on each side of the river, are said to have been the forts of two rival tribes of monkeys, the Mawah (Simia lar) and the Siamang (Simia syndactyla), in a terrible war which was waged between them in a bygone age. The Siamangs defeated their adversaries, whom they have ever since confined to the right bank of the river. If any matter of fact person should doubt the truth of this tradition, are there not two facts for the discomfiture of scepticism—the monkey forts (called Batu Mawah to this day) threatening each other from opposite banks of the river, and the assurance of all Perak Malays that no Mawah is to be found on the left bank?”—J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 9, p. 48. ↑

121 According to another account, the siamang is said to have originated from akar pulai, i.e. the roots of a pulai tree (the Malay substitute for cork, used to form floats for the fishing-nets). ↑

122J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 7, p. 26. ↑

123J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 1, pp. 93, 94. ↑

124J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 7, p. 22. ↑