Again Malim Bongsu, as he passed by, heard and recognised her voice; but upon learning that he had been for the second time the cause of his Princess’s troubles, he exclaimed, “Better were it for me were I nothing but a big fish”; and leaping into the water he disappeared, and was changed into a big fish as he desired.
Now the Princess’s nurse (who was called “The Daughter of Sakembang China”) was at the same time transformed into a bear, and as they were bathing at the time when they were surprised, and had not time to wash off all the soap (rice-cosmetic), the white marks on the breast and brows of the bear and on the breast and brows of the ape (siamang) have remained unto this day.
Occasionally the opposite transformation is believed to take place, some species of the monkey tribe being supposed to turn into fish.
Thus the k’ra (Macacus cynomolgus) is believed to develop into a species of fish called sĕnunggang, and of the fish called kalul (kalui or kalue), Sir W. E. Maxwell writes: “The ikan kalul (is believed) to be a monkey transformed. Some specially favoured observers have seen monkeys half through the process of metamorphosis—half-monkey and half-fish.”[122] The species of monkey which is believed to turn into the ikan kalul is, as I was told in Selangor, the b’rok or “cocoa-nut monkey.”
“Berhakim kapada brok” is a Malay proverbial expression which means, “‘To make the monkey judge,’ or, ‘to go to the monkey for justice.’ A fable is told by the Malays of two men, one of whom planted bananas on the land of the other. When the fruit was ripe each claimed it, but not being able to come to any settlement they referred the matter to the arbitration of a monkey (of the large kind called brok). The judge decided that the fruit must be divided; but no sooner was this done than one of the suitors complained that the other’s share was too large. To satisfy him the monkey reduced the share of the other by the requisite amount, which he ate himself. Then the second suitor cried out that the share of the first was now too large. It had to be reduced to satisfy him, the subtracted portion going to the monkey as before. Thus they went on wrangling until the whole of the fruit was gone, and there was nothing left to wrangle about. Malay judges, if they are not calumniated, have been known to protract proceedings until both sides have exhausted their means in bribes. In such cases the unfortunate suitors are said to berhakim kapada brok.”[123]
The Wild Pig and Other Animals
There are several superstitions about the Wild Boar which prove that it was not always regarded as an unclean animal.
Of these the following recipe, which was given me by a Jugra (Selangor) Malay, for turning brass into gold is the most remarkable:—
“Kill a wild pig and rip open its paunch. Sew up in this a quantity of old ‘scrap’ brass, pile timber over it, burn it, and then leave it alone until the grass has grown right over it. Then dig up the gold.” Again, certain wild boars are believed to carry on their tushes a talisman of extraordinary power, which is called rantei babi, or “Wild Boar’s Chain.” This chain consists, it is asserted, of three links of various metals (gold, silver, and amalgam), and is hung up on a shrub by the wild boar when he is enjoying his wallow, so that it is occasionally stolen by Malays who know his habits. I may add that, according to a Malay at Langat, the “were-tiger” (rimau jadi-jadian) occasionally appears in the shape of a wild boar escaping from a grave, in the centre of which may be afterwards seen the hole by which the animal has escaped.
“Among the modern Malays avoidance of the flesh of swine and of contact with anything connected with the unclean animal is, of course, universal. No tenet of El-Islam is more rigidly enforced than this. It is singular to notice, among a people governed by the ordinances of the Prophet, traces of the observance of another form of abstinence enjoined by a different religion. The universal preference of the flesh of the Buffalo to that of the Ox in Malay countries is evidently a prejudice bequeathed to modern times by a period when cow-beef was as much an abomination to Malays as it is to the Hindus of India at the present day. This is not admitted or suspected by ordinary Malays, who would probably have some reason, based on the relative wholesomeness of buffalo and cow-beef, to allege in defence of their preference of the latter to the former.”[124]