446 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



XXXI. Zoological Names and Theories of the Malays. By 

 Nelson Ann and ale, B.A. 



(Read 19th December 1900.) 



During six months spent among the natives of the Siamese 

 Malay States, — in that part of the Malay Peninsula l6ast 

 affected by the civilisations of el Islam and the West, — I 

 became interested in the stories which were told me about 

 animals, and in the names given by the Malays to those 

 beasts with which they were familiar. I do not refer to the 

 zoological conceptions of the learned Mohammedans who 

 may be found in most Malayan towns, and who appear to 

 derive many of their ideas ^ on matters biological through the 

 Saracen philosophers from Aristotle, but to those of the ordng 

 raydt, or "subject folk," of the country villages, men whose pro- 

 fession of el Islam is but the flimsiest of cloaks. Two points 

 especially seemed remarkable to me — (1) the extraordinary 

 resemblance between their zoological folklore and that with 

 which I was already familiar in the Faroe Isles and on the 

 south coast of Iceland ; and (2) the amount of sound observa- 

 tion to be detected in many of their most ridiculous tales 

 and names. True facts were there, but buried beneath 

 mountains of the wildest theory — theory which would have 

 put to shame the most empirical of white zoologists. The 

 existence of this solid foundation for their zoological beliefs 

 was all the more remarkable, as the Malays, contrary to 

 popular opinion, are not a jungle-loving race. They hate 

 and loathe the woods, as the abode of all manner of malicious 

 spirits, evil beasts, and deadly diseases ; but they appear to 

 have a profound, and almost instinctive, knowledge of the 

 habits of the jungle-dwellers, derived partly from the tradi- 

 tion of their fathers, and partly, no doubt, from intercourse 

 with the Sakais, or aboriginal inhabitants of the country, 

 little timid black savages, who live on what they can kill 

 and find. Mohammedanism, by strictly limiting the num- 

 ber of animals which may be eaten, has removed the most 



1 See "Malay Magic," p. 22. 



