Bintongan was explained to me carefully as = bĕnchana (calamity or disaster). [↑]
[108] This and the four succeeding names are evidently corruptions of the names of the four archangels, “Michael, Israfel, Azrael, and Gabriel.” Vide p. 98, supra. [↑]
[109] Vide pp. 94, 95, note, supra. [↑]
[110] In the Pĕlandok Jinaka, a Malay beast-fable, the Mouse-deer is styled “Sheikh ʿalam (or Shah ʿalam) di Rimba,” “Chief (or King) of the Forest.” [↑]
[112] Cp. our use of the phrase “an ugly customer,” vide App. [lxxxi]. [↑]
[113] J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 7, p. 26. [↑]
[114] The wild dogs of the jungle are considered by Malays to be not natural dogs, but “ghost” dogs of the pack of the Spectre Huntsman. They are regarded as most dangerous to meet, for, according to a Malay informant, “if they bark at us, we shall assuredly die where we stand and shall not be able to return home; if, however, we see them and bark at them before they bark at us, we shall not be affected by them. Therefore do all Malays give tongue when they meet the wild dog in the forest.” [↑]
[115] Or Sugar-palm (Arenga saccharifera). [↑]
[116] “The Malayan Sun-bear, the only animal of the bear species in the Peninsula. It is also known as the Honey-bear, from its fondness for that sweet. It is black in colour, with the exception of a semi-lunar-shaped patch of white on the breast, and a yellowish-white patch on the snout and upper jaw. The fur is fine and glossy. Its feet are armed with formidable claws, and its lips and tongue are peculiarly long and flexible, all three organs adapting it to tear open and get at the apertures in old trees where the wild bees usually build.”—Denys, Descr. Dic. Brit. Mal., s.v. Bruang. [↑]