290 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



great laws imposed by Nabi Sleman [King Solomon] 

 upon the animals. Every animal knows what it may 

 do and what it may not do. The deer may live on 

 the forest foliage and grass; the tigers may kill the 

 deer ; the various kinds of fish have their peculiar 

 food; the crocodiles may feed on the fish and on 

 such four-footed animals as chance may bring in their 

 way: but no animal may wantonly attack mankind. 

 That is the first law of Nabi Sleman; and if any 

 animal kills a man Nabi Sleman forthwith drives it 

 out of his fold. Thenceforth it lives apart from its 

 fellows, an outcast and an accursed thing. 



" When, therefore, a crocodile has killed a man, it 

 tries to evade the punishment of its offence. It 

 buries the body in the mud, and then after three 

 days floats to the surface with it, pretending that it 

 has just found it. It calls out over the water 



" ' It was not I, Sun ! 

 Not I, O Moon ! 

 Not I, Stars ! 



Bear witness all that it was not I, 

 Not I, that killed this man : 

 The Water killed him.' 



And this is partly true, for the crocodile kills a man 

 by drowning him. Then as the sun and moon and 

 stars hold their peace, the crocodile thinks that it 

 has freed itself of guilt, and sinks again to the river- 

 bottom to devour the body at its leisure." 



" The water killed him," Manap murmured two or 

 three times to himself; and any one who has ex- 

 perience of the hair - splitting quibbles in which 

 Muhammadan jurisconsults delight, will understand 



