The importance of rivers in the Malay Peninsula, and for that matter, in Malayan countries generally, can hardly be overrated. It was by the rivers that Malay immigration, coming for the most part, if not entirely, from Sumatra, entered the interior of the Peninsula, and before the influx of Europeans had superseded them by roads and railways the rivers were the sole means of inland communication. All old Malay settlements are situated on the banks of rivers or streams, both on this account and because of the necessity of having a plentiful supply of water for the purpose of irrigating the rice-fields, which constitute the main source of livelihood for the inhabitants.
Accordingly the backbone, so to speak, of a Malay district is the river that runs through it, and from which in most cases the district takes its name; for here, as elsewhere, the river-names are generally older than the names of territorial divisions. They are often unintelligible and probably of pre-Malayan origin, but are sometimes derived from the Malay names of forest trees. As a rule every reach and point has a name known to the local Malays, even though the river may run through forest and swamp with only a few villages scattered at intervals of several miles along its banks.
Of river legends there are not a few. The following extract relates to one of the largest rivers of the Peninsula, the river Perak, which gives its name to the largest and most important of the Malay States of the West Coast. Perak means silver, though none is mined in the country; and the legend is a fair specimen of the sort of story which grows up round an attempt to account for an otherwise inexplicable name:—
“On their return down-stream, the Raja and his followers halted at Chigar Galah, where a small stream runs into the river Perak. They were struck with astonishment at finding the water of this stream as white as santan (the grated pulp of the cocoa-nut mixed with water). Magat Terawis, who was despatched to the source of the stream to discover the cause of this phenomenon, found there a large fish of the kind called haruan engaged in suckling her young one. She had large white breasts from which milk issued.[282]
“He returned and told the Raja, who called the river ‘Perak’ (‘silver’), in allusion to its exceeding whiteness. Then he returned to Kota Lama.”[283]
3. REPTILES AND REPTILE CHARMS
The Crocodile
Of the origin of the Crocodile two conflicting stories, at least, are told. One of these was collected by Sir William Maxwell in Perak; the other was taken down by me from a Labu Malay in Selangor, but I have not met with it elsewhere; a parallel version of the story quoted by Maxwell being the commonest form of the legend in Selangor as well as Perak.
Sir William Maxwell’s account runs as follows:—
“In the case of the crocodile, we find an instance of a dangerous animal being regarded by Malays as possessed of mysterious powers, which distinguish him from most of the brute creation, and class him with the tiger and elephant. Just as in some parts of India sacred crocodiles are protected and fed in tanks set apart for them by Hindus, so in Malay rivers here and there particular crocodiles are considered kramat (sacred), and are safe from molestation. On a river in the interior of Malacca I have had my gun-barrels knocked up when taking aim at a crocodile, the Malay who did it immediately falling on his knees in the bottom of the boat and entreating forgiveness, on the ground that the individual reptile aimed at was kramat, and that the speaker’s family would not be safe if it were injured. The source of ideas like this lies far deeper in the Malay mind than his Muhammadanism; but the new creed has, in many instances, appropriated and accounted for them. The connection of the tiger with Ali, the uncle of the prophet, has already been explained. A grosser Muhammadan fable has been invented regarding the crocodile.