Each day that I see not my love.
[To the above I may perhaps be allowed to add that the (dialectal) form chandrawasir is the form generally used in the southern part of Selangor (where the final “r” is still commonly preserved). The regular (Dictionary) form of the word, however, appears to be chandrawasih or chĕndĕrawaseh (the forms chĕndărawangsa, chĕndĕrawasa, and chĕndĕrawangseh being also found). In origin the word is undoubtedly Sanskrit.
It means the Bird of Paradise, but in those Malay countries where the Bird of Paradise is unknown, it is also applied to other birds, such as (in Malay romances) to the golden oriole and even to the ostrich. In the Malay Peninsula, too, it is said to fly feet upwards (which peculiarity it shares, according to Mr. Clifford, with the Berek-berek, Pub. J.R.A.S., S.B., Hik. Raj. Budiman, pt. ii. 35), and its eggs are sometimes said, on falling, to develop into the snake called chintamani. It is always considered lucky, and the “Bird of Paradise Prayer,” (doʿa chĕndrawasi) as it is called, generally takes an important place in the formulas recited at the ceremonies connected with the Rice-soul, q.v. For the confusion between the chĕndrawasi and berek-berek (probably due to the fact that the chĕndrawasi, or Bird of Paradise, is not to be found in the Peninsula) vide note on App. xxx.] [↑]
[15] The baberek appears to be yet another name for the goat-sucker or night-jar (Caprimulgus macrurus, Horsf.) Dawn of History, page 171. [↑]
[16] As it appears that in Europe, at all events, the legend of the Wild Huntsman and his dogs (or Gabriel’s Hounds, as they are often called) is explained by the cries of wild geese flying overhead on dark nights, it seems most convenient to give the Malay legend in connection with the birds with which the Malays associate him. The explanation to which I refer is to be found in Prof. Newton’s Dictionary of Birds (1893), sub voce “Gabble-ratchet.” I quote in extenso:—
“In many parts of England, but especially in Yorkshire, the cries of some kind of wild goose,[17] when flying by night, are heard with dismay by those who do not know the cause of them, and are attributed to ‘Gabriel’s Hounds,’ an expression equivalent to ‘Gabble-ratchet,’ a term often used for them, as in this sense gabble is said to be a corruption of Gabriel, and that, according to some mediæval glossaries, is connected with gabbara or gabares, a word meaning a corpse (cp. Way, Promptorium Parvulorum, p. 320, sub voce ‘Lyche’); while ratchet is undoubtedly the same as the Anglo-Saxon ræce and Middle English racche or rache, a dog that hunts by scent and gives tongue. Hence the expression would originally mean ‘corpse-hounds,’ and possibly has to do with legends such as that of the Wild Huntsman.... The sounds are at times very marvellous, not to say impressive, when heard, as they almost invariably are, on a pitch-dark night, and it has more than once happened within the writer’s knowledge that a flock of geese, giving utterance to them, has continued for some hours to circle over a town or village in such a way as to attract the attention of the most unobservant of its inhabitants, and inspire with terror those among them who are prone to superstition. (Cp. Atkinson, Notes and Queries, ser. 4, vii. pp. 439, 440, and Cleveland Glossary, p. 203; Herrtage, Catholicon Anglicum, p. 147; Robinson, Glossary Whitby, (Engl. Dial. Soc.) p. 74; and Addy, Glossary Sheffield (Engl. Dial. Soc.) p. 83. Mr. Charles Swainson (Prov. Names, Br. B., p. 98), gives ‘Gabble-ratchet’ as a name of the night-jar, but satisfactory proof of that statement seems to be wanting.”[18] [↑]
[17] Prof. Newton here has a note: “Presumably the BRANT, on the rare occasions when, losing its way, it comes inland, for the call-notes proceeding from a flock of this species curiously resemble the sound of hounds in full cry (Thompson, B. Irel. iii. p. 59), though some hearers liken them to the yelping of puppies. The discrepancy may to some extent depend on distance.” [↑]
[18] Possibly the sounds made by the geese might be attributed to the night-jar by peasants through the latter’s appearing at the time they were made. It is curious that the Malays as well should connect the night-jar with the Wild Huntsman. [↑]
[19] Selangor Malays add further that his whole body became overgrown with orchids, a conceit which recalls their story of a local hero who went on swimming in the sea until his body became covered with oysters! [↑]
[20] The Spectre Huntsman is said to butcher (bantai) his game, whenever he gets it, under a kind of wild areca palm (pinang sĕnawar). He then binds it up again with a creeper (akar gasing-gasing), and roasts it over an earth hearth (saleian), the floor (lantei) of which is of the pinang boring (another wild areca palm), and covers it over with wild banana leaves (tudong salei daun pisang hutan) and leaves of the rĕsam bracken. [↑]