VII.] THE OCEANIC MONGOLS. 239 



This fundamental truth receives further illustration from the 

 ideas prevalent amongst the Malayans regarding 

 witchcraft, the magic arts, charms and spells, and Folklore The 

 especially the belief in the power of certain male- 

 volent human beings to transform themselves into wild beasts 

 and prey upon their fellow-creatures. Such superstitions girdle 

 the globe, taking their local colouring from the fauna of the 

 different regions, so that the were-wolf of medieval Europe finds 

 its counterpart in the human jaguar of South America, the human 

 lion or leopard of Africa 1 , and the human tiger of the Malay 

 Peninsula. Mr H. Clifford, who relates an occurrence known to 

 himself in connection with a " were-tiger " story of the Perak 

 district, aptly remarks that " the white man and the brown, the 

 yellow and the black, independently, and without receiving the 

 idea from one another, have all found the same explanation for 

 the like phenomena, all apparently recognising the truth of the 

 Malay proverb, that we are like unto the tdman fish that preys 

 upon its own kind 2 ." The story in question turns upon a young 

 bride, whose husband comes home late three nights following, 

 and the third time, being watched, is discovered by her in the 

 form of a full-grown tiger stretched on the ladder, which, as in all 

 Malay houses, leads from the ground to the threshold of the door. 

 " Patimah gazed at the tiger from the distance of only a foot or 

 two, for she was too paralysed with fear to move or cry out, and 

 as she looked a gradual transformation took place in the creature 

 at her feet. Slowly, as one sees a ripple of wind pass over the 

 surface of still water, the tiger's features palpitated and were 

 changed, until the horrified girl saw the face of her husband come 

 up through that of the beast, much as the face of a diver comes 

 up to the surface of a pool. In another moment Patimah saw 

 that it was Haji Ali who was ascending the ladder of his house, 

 and the spell that had hitherto bound her was snapped." 



1 In Central Africa " the belief in ' were ' animals, that is to say in human 

 beings who have changed themselves into lions or leopards or some such 

 harmful beasts, is nearly universal. Moreover there are individuals who 

 imagine they possess this power of assuming the form of an animal and killing 

 human beings in that shape " (Sir H. H. Johnston, British Central Africa, 



P- 439)- 



- In Court and Kampong, p. 63. See also Eth. p. 216. 



