6 MANTRA GAJAH. 



" released, and forthwith caught the elephant. Thereafter the 

 " king of Malacca ordered all the young men at his court to learn 

 "the science from Maharaja Dewa Sura; for it was the king's 

 " custom, whenever any person was very skilful regarding ele- 

 " phants or horses or in the use of weapons, to have the youth of 

 " his court taught by that person at the king's own personal 

 " expense." 



The salient points in the story are that the headman of a 

 Malay king's elephants was a Hindu of the warrior caste (who, 

 at the present day, would perhaps have been known as Rama- 

 sami) ; that he was aware of the existence in the country of a 

 knowledge of the art of catching elephants, whereas apparently 

 the Malay king was not aware of it ; that in the king of a 

 country on the east coast of the peninsula, far removed from the 

 influence of India or Sumatra, was found a skilful exponent of 

 the art ; and finally that his art differed from that of the Hindu. 



It is suggested that it is possible that the deductions which 

 may be made from a purely legendary story may have some 

 foundation in fact ; that is to say, that, when the invasion of the 

 Peninsula from Sumatra took place, the invading Malays brought 

 witli them a knowledge of the training of elephants derived 

 from India, but that at the time of the invasion the inhabitants 

 (whoever they may have been) had already a knowledge of the 

 management of elephants. 



My efforts to discover any Malay tradition regarding the 

 early history of the art of elephant training were not success- 

 ful. In answer to my questions, my Malay elephant driver 

 friends were able to state regarding these mantras very little 

 mure than they were katurunan deripada siam " descended from 

 Siam." For as many generations as they could count they 

 were convinced that the mantras had been in the hands of their 

 Malay ancestors. They knew no tradition of siam elephant 

 catchers or elephant trainers being in the country. They had no 

 idea why the siam came into the country nor why they impart- 

 ed their knowledge to the Malays. How, why or when they 

 acquired their present knowledge they could not say, but of one 

 thing they were certain and that was that it was katurunan 

 deripada siam. 



Jour, Straits Branch 



