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.”[96]
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 (Pŭtri Dandi),
Rouse you quickly (from your slumbers)