Your tail from the sprouting of a thatch-palm.”
As you utter the last words give the end of the line three twists (pioh) and then clench the teeth upon it (katup di gigi) thrice, holding your breath as you do so; then jerk it (rentak) thrice and haul upon it (runtun); if you feel much resistance slack it off again and repeat the ceremony, using the “crippling charm” as before, “until you break all the bones in his body.” Besides this, in order to drive the “mischief” out of the crocodile, you may say:—
“Pardon, King of the Sea, God of Currents,
I wish to drive the ‘mischief’ out of this crocodile.”[300]
And strike the water and middle of the line with the end of the line itself.
Now you haul on the line, and the crocodile comes up to the top with a rush, and the fun begins. As he comes up to the surface you ask him, “Was it you who caught So-and-so?”[301] And if he wishes to reply in the affirmative he will bellow loudly. When he does so, say, “Wind yourself up” (”lilit”), and he will wind the line round his muzzle. And when you want to kill him, chop across the root of his tail with a cutlass; this will kill him at once.
I may add that it is not generally wise to keep a captured crocodile alive overnight, as he happens to be one of the clientèle of a certain powerful hantu (spirit) named Langsuir[302] who comes to the assistance of his follower at night and endows him with supernatural strength, thus enabling him, if he is not very sufficiently tied up, to get loose, which might be awkward. You should also never bring one into the house, on account of an understanding, prejudicial to yourself, which exists between him and the common house-lizard (chichak).
Of the folklore which is concerned with other classes of “reptilia” that which deals with Snakes is the most important.
“The gall-bladder of the python, uler sawah, is in great request among native practitioners. This serpent is supposed to have two of these organs, one of which is called lampedu idup, or the live gall-bladder. It is believed that if a python is killed and this organ is cut out and kept, it will develop into a serpent of just twice the size of that from which it was taken. The natives positively assert that the python attains a length of sixty to seventy feet, and that it has been known to have killed and eaten a rhinoceros.
“One of the pit vipers is exceedingly sluggish in its movements, and will remain in the same place for days together. One individual that was watched, lay coiled up on the branch of a tree for five days, and probably would have remained much longer, but at the end of that time it was caught and preserved. The Malays call it ular kapak daun, and they say that it is fed three times a day by birds, who bring it insects to eat. One man went so far as to say that he had actually once seen some birds engaged in feeding one of these beautiful bright-green snakes.”[303]