FOLKLORE OF THE MALAYS. 15 



"hunted the whole earth over without finding what I want; it is 

 " now time to try the firmament." So he holloa' d on his dogs 

 through the sky, while he walked below on the earth looking up 

 at them, and after a long time, the hunt still being unsuccessful, 

 the back of his head, from constantly gazing upwards, became fixed 

 to his back, and he was no longer able to look down at the earth. 

 One day, a leaf from the tree called Si Limbalc fell on his throat 

 and took root there and a straight shoot grew upwards in front of 

 his face. In this state he still limits through Malay forests, urging 

 on his dogs as they hunt through the sky, with his gaze evermore 

 turned upwards. 



His wife, whom lie had left behind when he started on the fatal 

 chase, was delivered in due time of two children — a boy and a girl. 

 When they were old enough to play with other children, it chanced 

 one day that the boy quarrelled with the child of a neighbour with 

 whom he was playing. The latter reproached him with his fathers 

 fate, of which the child had hitherto been ignorant, saying: "Thou 

 " art like thy father, who lias become an evil spirit, ranging the 

 " forests day and night and eating and drinking no man knows how. 

 " Get thou to thy father." Then the boy ran crying to his mother 

 and related what had been said to him. " Do not cry," said she, " it 

 " is true, alas ! that thy father has become a spirit of evil." On this 

 the boy cried all the more, and begged to be allowed to join his 

 father. His mother yielded at last to his entreaties, and told him 

 the name of his father and the names of the dogs. He might be 

 known, she said, by his habit of gazing fixedly at the sky and by 

 his four weapons — a blow-pipe ( sumpitan ), a spear, a kris, and a 

 sword (Mew ang). "And," added she, " when thou nearest the 

 " hunt approaching, call upon him and the dogs by name and repeat 

 " thy own name and mine so that he may know thee." 



The boy entered the forest, and, after he had walked some 

 way, met an old man, who asked him where he was going. " I 

 " go to join my father," said the lad. " If thou findest him," said 

 the old man, " ask him where he has put my chisel which he bor- 

 " rowed from me." This the boy promised to do, and continued his 

 journey. After lie had gone a long way, he heard sounds like 

 those made by people engaged in hunting. As they approached, 

 lie repeated the names which his mother had told him, and 



