14 FOLKLOEE OF THE MALAYS. 



The baberek, or birik-birik, another nocturnal bird, is a harbinger 

 of misfortune. This bird is said to fly in flocks at night ; it has a 

 peculiar note, and a passing flock makes a good deal of noise. If 

 these birds are heard passing, the Perak peasant brings out a 

 sengkalan (a wooden platter on which spices are ground) and beats 

 it with a knife or other domestic utensil, calling out as he does so : 

 "Nenek bawa ~hati-nia" (''Great-grandfather, bring us their hearts"). 

 This is an allusion to the belief that the bird baberek flies in the 

 train of the Spectre Huntsman (hantu pemburu), who roams 

 Malay forests with several ghostly dogs, and whose appearance is 

 the forerunner of disease or death. "Bring us their hearts"' is a 

 mode of asking for some of his game, and it is hoped that the 

 request will delude the liantu pemburu into the belief that the 

 applicants are ra'iyat, or followers, of his, and that he will, there- 

 fore, spare the household. 



The baberek, which flies with the wild hunt, bears a striking 

 resemblance to the white owl, Totosel, the nun who broke her vows 

 and now mingles her "tutu" with the "holoa" of the Wild 

 Huntsman of the Hartz.° 



The legend of the Spectre Huntsman is thus told by the Perak 

 jtfalaj's : — 



In former days, at Katapang, in Sumatra, there lived a man 

 whose wife, during her pregnancy, was seized with a violent 

 longing for the meat of the pelandok ( mouse-deer ). But 

 it was no ordinary pelandok that she wanted. She insisted 

 that it should be a doe, big with male offspring, and she bade 

 her husband go and seek in the jungle for what she wanted. 

 The man took his weapons and dogs and started, but his quest was 

 fruitless, for he had misunderstood his wife's injunctions, and what 

 he sought was a buck pelandok, big with male offspring, an un- 

 heard of prodigy. Day and night he hunted, slaying innumerable 

 mouse-deer, which he threw away on finding that they did not 

 fulfil the conditions required. He had sworn a solemn oath on 

 leaving home that he would not return unsuccessful, so he 

 became a regular denizen of the forest, eating the flesh and drink- 

 ing the blood of the animals which he slew, and pursuing night and 

 day his fruitless search. At length he said to himself : "I have 



* Pawn of History, p. 171. 



