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

14 The following passage describes how a magic prince visited the Navel of the Seas:—

“Presently he arrived at his destination—the Navel of the Seas—(Pusat tasek). All the monsters of the ocean, the whales and monster fishes, and colossal dragons (naga umbang), and the magic dragons (naga sri naga ka-sak-tian), assembled together to eat and devour him, and such a tumult arose that the Raja Naga, who was superior to all, heard it and came to see. Now when he beheld the Golden Dragon he opened his jaws to their full extent, and made three attempts to seize and swallow him, but failed each time. At length, however, he caught him, and dashed him against the sea bottom with such force that his head was buried in the ground, but the little dragon cared not at all. Then the Raja Naga said: ‘Tell me the truth! from what land hast thou fallen (titek dĕri pada nĕgri ninggua mana), and whose son and offspring art thou?’ To which the Golden Dragon made answer, saying, ‘I have no land nor country, I have neither father nor mother, but I was incarnated from the hollow part of a bamboo!’ When the Raja Naga heard this he sent for his spectacles (chĕrmin mata), and by their aid he was able to see the real parentage of the Golden Dragon and all concerning him, and he at once told him everything concerning his birth (usul asal ka-jadi-an-nya), and informed him that they were close relations, since the Golden Dragon’s mother was a relative of the Raja Naga.

Then the Raja Naga kissed and embraced his nephew, and congratulated himself on having seen him before his time came to die, and calling together all his people to feast, installed (tabal) the Golden Dragon as king over them in his own place, since he was very old. Thus the Golden Dragon continued to live in increasing state and prosperity at the Pusat tasek, and was greatly beloved by his uncle, the Raja Naga; and in the course of time his horn (chula) split up and was replaced by six other heads—making seven in all.”—Hikayat Raja Budiman, part ii. pp. 7, 8. Publications of the S. B. of the Royal Asiatic Society, No. 3. ↑

15 “The Malays give the names ‘Bah Jantan’ and ‘Bah Betina,’ viz. the ‘male’ and the ‘female’ floods, respectively to the first rising of a freshet, and to the flood which sometimes ensues after the waters have partially subsided. The latter is generally supposed to be more serious than the former.”—Cliff. and Swett., Mal. Dict. s.v. Bah.

“‘If this be the likeness of the male flood, what will that of the female be?’ ejaculated my head boatman. In common with other Malays, he held the belief that floods, like other moving things, go in couples. The first to come is the male, and when he has passed upon his way the female comes after him, pursuing him hotly, according to the custom of the sex, and she is the more to be feared, as she rushes more furiously than does her fleeing mate.”—Cliff., Stud. in Brown Humanity, p. 213. ↑

16 This neck of land was called “Pĕnarek Prahu,” or the “Place of the dragging (across) of Boats.” ↑

17 “The belief (probably borrowed from the Hindoos) of a serpent devouring the sun or moon, whenever they are eclipsed, and the weird lamentations of the people during the continuance of these phenomena, are well known.”—Newbold, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 358. ↑

18 “During an eclipse they (the Malays) make a loud noise with sounding instruments to prevent one luminary from devouring the other, as the Chinese, to frighten away the dragon.”—Marsden, Hist. of Sum. p. 157. I have not yet met with the explanation given in this passage of Marsden’s work.

“Rahu, a daitya or demon who is supposed to seize the sun and moon, and thus cause eclipses (according to the common myth he was a son of Vipra-ʿcitti and Sinhikā, and had four arms, his lower part ending in a tail), he was the instigator of all mischief among the daityas, and when the gods had produced the amrita or nectar from the churned ocean, he disguised himself like one of them and drank a portion of it, but the sun and moon having detected his fraud and informed Vishnu, the latter severed his head and two of his arms from the rest of his body; the portion of nectar he had swallowed having secured his immortality, the head and tail were transferred to the stellar sphere, the head wreaking its vengeance on the sun and moon by occasionally swallowing them for a time, while the tail, under the name of Ketu, gave birth to a numerous progeny of comets and fiery meteors.”—Monier Williams, Skt. Dict. s.v. Rahu. ↑

19Gĕrhâna is from a Sanskr. word meaning “eclipse.” The name of the monster is Rahu. ↑

20 Clifford, Stud. in Brown Humanity, p. 50. For ceremonies to be observed during an eclipse, more especially by women in travail, vide Birth Ceremonies (infra). ↑

21 “They (the Malays) observe in the moon an old man sitting under a bĕringin tree (the Banyan, Ficus Indica).”—Maxwell, in J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 7, p. 27, In Sanskrit mythology the spots on the moon are supposed to be caused by a hare or antelope, which being hard pressed by a hunter appealed to the moon for protection, and was taken up by the moon into her arms. This is no doubt the real explanation of the Malay phrase, “Bulan bunting pĕlandok” (“the moon is great with the mouse-deer”), an expression often used when the moon is three-quarters full. ↑

22 “They tell of a man in the moon, who is continually employed in spinning cotton, but that every night a rat gnaws his thread, and obliges him to begin his work afresh.”—Marsd., Hist. of Sum. p. 187. ↑

23 It is, however, also possible that there may be two “bujangs,” and that we have here a simple case of what philologists call “confluence,” so that the derivation, though quite possible, must not be accepted without reserve. ↑

24 Sanskrit tapasya. ↑

25 Maxwell, in J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 7, p. 28. ↑

26 In Selangor I have also heard “Ular minum,” “the snake drinks.” ↑

27 A Selangor Malay told me that the full phrase was “Ular Danu bĕrbantal,” “the snake Danu is pillowed (in sleep).” ↑

28 A fuller expression is tunggul-tunggul mĕmbangun. A double rainbow is called palangi sa-k’lamin.

Maxwell points out, in a note, that dhanuk, in Hindustani, means a bow, and is a common term in India, among Hindus, for the rainbow. ↑

29 Maxwell, J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 7, p. 21. ↑

30 So, too, midday, especially when a light rain is falling and the sun shining at one and the same time, is usually regarded as equally dangerous. ↑

31 Maxwell, loc. cit. Vide infra, Chap. IV. pp. 92, 93. ↑