Comes the intense barking of my Dogs.
My Dogs are Dogs of Luck,
Not Luck that is adventitious,
But Luck incarnate with their bodies.
Go tread upon the heaped and rotting leaves,
And never desert the scent.”
Speaking of dog-lore generally, it may be remarked that though dogs are very frequently kept by the Malays, it is considered unlucky to keep them. “The dog ... is unlucky. He longs for the death of his master, an event which will involve the slaying of animals at the funeral feast, when the bones will fall to the dogs. When a dog is heard howling at night, he is supposed to be thinking of the broken bones (niat handak mengutib tulang patah).”[113]
Even the wild dogs in the jungle[114] are warned not to bark, and are addressed as if they were human:—
“If you bark your windpipe shall burst,
If you smack your lips your tongue shall be docked.