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

Of the origin of the Crocodile two conflicting stories, at least, are told. One of these was collected by Sir William Maxwell in Perak; the other was taken down by me from a Labu Malay in Selangor, but I have not met with it elsewhere; a parallel version of the story quoted by Maxwell being the commonest form of the legend in Selangor as well as Perak.

“In the case of the crocodile, we find an instance of a dangerous animal being regarded by Malays as possessed of mysterious powers, which distinguish him from most of the brute creation, and class him with the tiger and elephant. Just as in some parts of India sacred crocodiles are protected and fed in tanks set apart for them by Hindus, so in Malay rivers here and there particular crocodiles are considered kramat (sacred), and are safe from molestation. On a river in the interior of Malacca I have had my gun-barrels knocked up when taking aim at a crocodile, the Malay who did it immediately falling on his knees in the bottom of the boat and entreating forgiveness, on the ground that the individual reptile aimed at was kramat, and that the speaker’s family would not be safe if it were injured. The source of ideas like this lies far deeper in the Malay mind than his Muhammadanism; but the new creed has, in many instances, appropriated and accounted for them. The connection of the tiger with Ali, the uncle of the prophet, has already been explained. A grosser Muhammadan fable has been invented regarding the crocodile.

“She it was who had the care of Siti Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet. One day she took some clay and fashioned it into the likeness of what is now the crocodile. The material on which she moulded the clay was a sheet of upih (the sheath of the betel-nut palm). This became the covering of the crocodile’s under-surface. When she attempted to make the mass breathe it broke in pieces. This happened twice. Now it chanced that the Tuan Putri had just been eating sugar-cane, so she arranged a number of sugar-cane joints to serve as a backbone, and the peelings of the rind she utilised as ribs. On its head she placed a sharp stone, and she made eyes out of bits of saffron (kuniet); the tail was made of the mid-rib and leaves of a betel-nut frond. She prayed to God Almighty that the creature might have life, and it at once commenced to breathe and move. For a long time it was a plaything of the Prophet’s daughter, Siti Fatima; but it at length became treacherous and faithless to Tuan Putri Padang Gerinsing, who had grown old and feeble. Then Fatima cursed it, saying, ‘Thou shalt be the crocodile of the sea, no enjoyment shall be thine, and thou shalt not know lust or desire.’ She then deprived it of its teeth and tongue, and drove nails into its jaws to close them. It is these nails which serve the crocodile as teeth to this day.

Malay Pawangs in Pêrak observe the following methods of proceeding when it is desired to hook a crocodile:—To commence with, a white fowl must be slain in the orthodox way, by cutting its throat, and some of its blood must be rubbed on the line (usually formed of rattan) to which the fowl itself is attached as bait. The dying struggles of the fowl in the water are closely watched, and conclusions are drawn from them as to the probable behaviour of the crocodile when hooked. If the fowl goes to a considerable distance the crocodile will most likely endeavour to make off; but it will be otherwise if the fowl moves a little way only up and down or across the stream.

“When the line is set the following spell must be repeated: ‘Aur Dangsari kamala sari, sambut kirim Tuan Putri Padang Gerinsing; tidak di-sambut mata angkau chabut’ (‘O Dangsari, lotus-flower, receive what is sent thee by the Lady Princess Padang Gerinsing; if thou receivest it not, may thy eyes be torn out’). As the bait is thrown into the water the operator must blow on it three times, stroke it three times, and thrice repeat the following sentence, with his teeth closed and without drawing breath: ‘Kun kata Allah sapaya kun kata Muhammad tab paku,’ (‘Kun saith God, so kun saith Muhammad; nail be fixed.’) Other formulas are used during other stages of the proceedings.”284

“There was a woman who had a child which had just learnt to sit up (tahu dudok), and to which she gave the name of ‘Sarilang.’ One day she took the child to the river-side in order to bathe it, but during the latter operation it slipped from her grasp and fell into the river. The mother shrieked and wept, but as she did not know how to dive she had to return home without her child. That night she dreamed a dream, in which her child appeared and said, ‘Weep no more, mother, I have turned into a crocodile, and am now called ‘Grandsire Sarilang’ (’Toh Sarilang): if you would meet me, come to-morrow to the spot where you lost me.’ Next morning, therefore, the mother repaired to the river and called upon the name of her child, whereupon her child rose to the surface, and she saw that from the waist downwards he had already turned into a crocodile, though he was still human down to the waist. Now the child said, ‘Come back again after fourteen days, and remember to bring an egg and a plantain (banana).’ She therefore went again at the time appointed, and having called upon him by his new name (’Toh Sarilang), he again came to the surface, when she saw that from the waist upwards he had also now turned into a crocodile.

So she gave him the egg and the plantain, and he devoured them, and when he had done so he said, ‘Whenever the crocodiles get ferocious (ganas), and commence to attack human beings, take a plantain, an egg, and a handful of parched rice, and after scattering the rice on the river, leave the egg and the plantain on the bank, calling upon my name (’Toh Sarilang)285 as you do so, and their ferocity will immediately cease.’”

“When the eggs of a crocodile are hatching out, the mother watches; the little ones that take to their native element she does not molest, but she eats up all those which run away from the water, but should any escape her and get away on to the land they will change into tigers. Some of these reptiles are said to have tongues, and when possessed of that organ they are very much more vicious and dangerous than the ordinarily formed ones. When a crocodile enters a river it swallows a pebble, so that on opening the stomach of one it is only necessary to count the stones in it to tell how many rivers it has been into during its life. The Malays call these stones kira-kira dia,286 on this account. The Indians on the banks of the Orinoco, on the other hand, assert that the alligator swallows stones to add weight to its body to aid it in diving and dragging its prey under water. Crocodiles inhabiting a river are said to resent the intrusion of strangers from other waters, and fights often take place in consequence. According to the Malays they are gifted with two pairs of eyes. The upper ones they use when above water, and the under pair when beneath the surface. This latter pair is situated half-way between the muzzle and the angle of the mouth, on the under surface of the lower jaw. These are in reality not eyes, but inward folds of skin connected by a duct with a scent gland, which secretes an unctuous substance of a dark gray colour, with a strong musky odour.

Medicinal properties are attributed to the flesh of the males, which are believed to be of very rare occurrence, and to be quite unable to leave the water by reason of their peculiar conformation. The fact is that the sexes are almost undistinguishable, except on dissection, and therefore the natives class all that are caught as females. While on this subject, it may be worth mentioning that at Port Weld there used to be a tame crocodile which would come when called. The Malays fed it regularly, and said it was not vicious, and would not do any harm. It was repeatedly seen by the yearly visitants to Port Weld, or Sapetang, as the place was then called, and was a fine big animal, with a bunch of seaweed growing on its head. Some one had it called, and then fired at the poor thing; whether it was wounded or only frightened is uncertain, but it never came again.”287

The female crocodile commonly builds her nest, with or without the aid of the male, among the thorny clumps of lĕmpiei (or dĕmpiei) trees just above high-water mark, using the fallen leaves to form the nest, and breaking up the twigs with her mouth. The season for laying is said, in the north of the Peninsula, to coincide with the time “when the rice-stalks swell with the grain,” i.e. the end of the wet season.

The most prolific species of crocodile is reputed to be the buaya lubok, or Bight crocodile (also called buaya rawang, or Marsh crocodile), which lays as many as fifty or sixty eggs in a single nest. Other varieties, I may add, are the buaya tĕmbaga (Copper crocodile), the buaya katak (Dwarf crocodile), which is, as its name implies, “short and stout,” and the buaya hitam or bĕsi (Black or Iron crocodile), which is reported to attain a larger size than any other variety. This latter kind is often moss-grown, and is hence called buaya bĕrlumut (Mossy crocodile). The largest specimen of this variety of which I have had any reliable account is one which measured “four fathoms, less one hasta” (about 23 feet), and which was caught in the time of Sultan Mahmat at Sungei Sembilang, near Kuala Selangor, by one Nakhoda Kutib.

The buaya jolong-jolong, which has attracted attention owing to its reputed identification with the gavial of Indian waters, and which is therefore no true crocodile, is pointedly described by Malays as separating itself from the other species.

Finally, there is the buaya gulong tĕnun (the “Crocodile that Rolls up the Weft”?), which is not, however, the name of a separate variety, but is the name applied to the Young Person or New Woman of the world of crocodile-folk—the aggressive female who “snaps” at everything and everybody for the mere glory of the snap!

“After hatching,” says Mr. Wray, “the mother watches, and ... eats up all those which run away from the water, but should any escape her and get away on to the land they will turn into tigers.” There is perhaps more point in the Selangor tradition, according to which the little runaways turn, not into tigers, but into “iguanas” (Monitor lizards).

As regards the want of a tongue, which is supposed to be common to all crocodiles, it is said they were so created by design, in order that they might not acquire too pronounced a “taste” for human flesh. Hence the proverb which declares that no carrion is too bad for them to welcome: “Buaya mana tahu mĕnolak bangkei?” (“When will crocodiles refuse corpses?”)288

Every crocodile has, according to the Selangor Malay, three sets of fangs, which are named as follows: (1) si hampa daya289 (two above and two below), at the tip of the jaws; (2) ĕntah-ĕntah (two in the upper and two in the lower jaw), half-way up; (3) charik kapan (two in the upper and two in the lower jaw), near the socket of the jaws.

The first may be translated by “Exhaust your devices”; the second by “Yes or no”; and the third by “Tear the shroud,” the latter being a reference to the selvage which, among the Malays, is torn off the shroud and afterwards used for tying it up when the corpse has been wrapped in it.

If a man is caught by the “Exhausters of all Resources,” he has a fair chance of escape; if caught by the “Debateable” teeth his escape is decidedly problematical; but if caught by the “Tearers of the Shroud,” he is to all intents and purposes a dead man. Whenever it effects a capture the crocodile carries its victim at once below the surface, and either tries to smother him in the soft, thick mud of the mangrove swamp, or pushes him under a snag or projecting root, with the object of letting him drown, while it retires to watch him from a short distance. After what it considers a sufficient interval to effect its purpose, the crocodile seizes the body of the drowned man and rises to the surface, when it “calls upon the Sun, Moon, and Stars to bear witness” that it was not guilty of the homicide—

After thrice repeating this strange performance, the crocodile again dives and proceeds to prepare the corpse for its prospective banquet. Embracing the corpse with its “arms,” and curving the tip of its powerful tail under its own belly (until the tail is nearly bent double), it contrives to break the backbone of the victim, and then picking up the body once more with its teeth, dashes it violently against a trunk or root in order to break the long bones of the limbs. When the bones are thus so broken as to offer no obstruction, it swallows the body whole—thus affording a remarkable parallel to the boa in its method of devouring its prey, and recalling Darwinian ideas of their cousin-hood. Miraculous escapes have, however, occasionally occurred. Thus Lebai ʿAli was caught by a crocodile at Batu Burok (Kuala Selangor), one evening as the tide was ebbing, and the crocodile, after smothering him effectually (as it thought) in the thick mud, retired to await the end. Insensibly, however, it floated farther and farther off with the falling tide, and Lebai ʿAli, seeing his opportunity, made a bold and successful dash for freedom.

A similar case was that of Si Ka’, who was pushed under a bamboo root on the river bank by the crocodile which caught him, and who, after waiting till his formidable enemy had floated a little farther off than usual, drew himself up by an overhanging stem and swarmed up it. At the same moment the crocodile made a rush, and actually caught him by the great toe, which latter, however, he willingly surrendered to his enemy as the price of his liberty.

A yet more marvellous escape, was that of the youth belonging to the Government launch at Klang, who escaped, it is related, by the time-honoured expedient of putting his thumbs into the crocodile’s eyes. In connection with this latter exploit, by the way, Malay authorities assert that the crocodile’s eyes protrude from their sockets on stalks (like those of a crab) so long as he stays under water, the stalks being “as long as the forefinger,” so that it is quite an easy matter to catch hold of these living “pegs.”

For the rest, crocodiles are said by the Malays to have a sort of false stomach divided into several pouches or sacs, one sac being for the stones which they swallow, and another for the clothes and accoutrements of their human victims, these pouches being in addition to their real stomach (in which the remains of monkeys, wild pig, mouse-deer, and other small animals are found), and, in the case of female specimens, the ovary. The second pair of eyes in the neck which, Mr. Wray says, they are supposed to use when below the surface, are in Selangor supposed to be used at night, whence they are called mata malam, or night-eyes, as opposed to their real eyes which they are supposed to use only by day.

As regards the stones, which crocodiles undoubtedly swallow, they are sometimes supposed to enable each male crocodile to keep an account of the number of rivers which it has entered, of the number of bights it has lived in, or even of the number of its human victims. The noise which crocodiles make when fighting resembles a loud roar or bellow, and the Malays apply the same word mĕnguak to the bellow of the crocodile as well as to that of the buffalo.

The wrath of the crocodile-folk is provoked by those who wish to shoot them, in various ways, of which, perhaps, the commonest is to dabble a sarong, or (as is said to be more effectual) a woman’s mosquito-curtain, in the water of the river where they live. So also to keep two sets of weights and measures (one for buying and another for selling, as is sometimes done by the Chinese), is said to be a certain means of provoking their indignation.

The crocodile-wizard is sometimes credited with the power of calling the crocodile-folk together, and of discovering a man-eater among them, and an eye-witness lately described to me the scene on one such occasion. A Malay had been carried off and devoured by a crocodile at Larut, and a Batu Bara man, who went by the sobriquet of Nakhoda Hassan, undertook to discover the culprit. Sprinkling some of the usual sacrificial rice-paste (tĕpong tawar) and “saffron” rice upon the surface of the river, he called out in loud tones to the various tribes of crocodiles in the river, and summoned them to appear on the surface. My informant declares that not less than eight or ten crocodiles actually appeared, whereupon the Pawang commanded them all to return to the bottom with the exception of the one which was guilty. In a few moments only one crocodile remained on the surface, and this one, on being forthwith killed and cut open, was found to contain the garments of the unfortunate man who had been captured by it. Similar stories of the prowess of crocodile charmers are told by the Javanese.291

I shall now proceed to describe the methods and ceremonies used for the catching of crocodiles. The following is a description by Mr. J. H. M. Robson, of Selangor, of the most usual method, at all events in Selangor, but it would appear from remarks upon the subject in Dr. Denys’ work, that live as well as dead bait is commonly used:—

“A small piece of hard wood, about 6 in. or 8 in. long, and about three-quarters of an inch thick, is sharpened at both ends, and to the middle of this the end of a yard of twine is firmly fastened, the twine having about a dozen strands just held together by say a couple of knots, so as to prevent the crocodile from biting it through, as the strands simply get between his teeth; to the other end of this twine is fastened a single uncut rattan, at least 20 feet long, which can be only a quarter of an inch in diameter, but may with advantage be a little bigger; a small stick affixed to the end of the line, to act as a visible float, completes this part of the gear. Probably a crocodile will eat anything, but he is certainly partial to chicken—at least that bait is always successful in the Sepang river—so, having killed some sort of fowl, the body is cut right through the breast lengthways from head to tail, and the small piece of pointed hard wood inserted, and the bird bound up again with string. Next, two pieces of light wood are nailed together, forming a small floating platform about a foot square, and on this the fowl is placed, raised on miniature trestles. The small platform thus furnished is placed in a likely spot near the bank, and the rattan line is hitched over a small branch or a stake, so that the bait platform may not be carried away by the tide.

By the next morning the rattan line, bait and platform may all have disappeared, which probably means that the crocodile, having swallowed the fowl, has gone off with the rattan in tow, a tug being sufficient to set it free, whilst the platform, thus released, has drifted away. A crocodile will try the aggressive sometimes, so, when going in pursuit, it is better to have a boat than a sampan,292 but Malay paddles are the most convenient in either case. It is also advisable to have a second man with a rifle. The crocodile has probably a favourite place up-stream, so the boatmen paddle up on the look-out for the rattan (which always floats), finding it at length close to the mangrove roots bordering on the river, perhaps. The boat-hook picks up the floating-stick end of the line, and, with a couple of boatmen on to this and a crocodile at the other end, with the small pointed hard wood stick across his throat, the excitement begins. The crocodile plunges about amidst the mangrove roots under the water, and then makes a rush; the rattan is paid out again and the boat follows; then he rushes under the boat, perhaps at the boat, whilst the line is steadily pulled in.