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 “Mĕntri B’lukar,” the “Vizier of the (secondary) Forest-Growth.”[110]
It is generally taken by means of a snare called tapah pĕlandok, but sometimes by tapping on the ground with sticks (mĕngĕtok pĕlandok), 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
Kĕmbang bunga si Panggil-Panggil,