16 FOLKLORE OF THE MALAYS. 



immediately found, himself face to face with his father. The 

 hunter demanded of him who he was. and the child repeated 

 all that his mother had told him. not forgetting the message 

 of the old man about the chisel. Then the hunter said : 

 " Truly thou art my son. As for the chisel it is true that when 

 " I started from house I was in the middle of shaping some bamboos 

 *' ; to make steps for the house. I put the chisel inside one of the 

 " bamboos. Take it and return it to the owner. Eeturn now and take 

 " care of thy mother and sister. As for lie who. reproached thee, 

 " hereafter we will repay him. I will eat his heart and drink his 

 " blood, so shall he be rewarded.** From that time forward the 

 Spectre Huntsman has afflicted mankind, and many are those whom 

 he has destroyed. Before dismissing his son. he desired him to 

 warn all his kindred never to use bamboo for making steps for a 

 house and never to hang clothes to dry from poles stuck in between 

 the joists supporting the floor, and thus jutting out at right angles 

 with a house, f " lest," said he, ;i I should strike against such poles 

 " as I walk along." ''Further,"' he continued, "when ye hear the 

 " note of the bird birik-birih at night, ve will know that I am walk- 



o 



ye 



" ing near." Then the boy returned to Ins mother and delivered to 

 her and to all their kindred the injunctions of the lost man. One 

 account says that the woman followed her spectre husband to the 

 forest, where she joins in the chase with him to this day, and that 

 they have there children born in the woods. The first boy and 

 girl retained their human form, according to this account, but some 

 Pawangs say that the whole family arc in the forest with the 

 father. 



* The episode of 1 lie chisel, which here seems to he meaningless, connects this 

 legend with the beliefs of the Bataks and of the Balinese regarding earthquakes. 

 If an earthquake occurs, the Batak calls out Sohul ( the handle of a chisel ), in 



allusion to the chisel of Batara Guru, which was broken during the creation of the 

 world when a raft was being made for the support of the earth. See lvav/i Lan- 

 guage and Literature, Van dee Ttuk, Journal of the Koval Asiatic Society, XIII. , 

 Js T . S., FaitL, p. 60. 



t In explanation of this, it may be necessary to remark that Malay houses are 

 built on wooden posts, so that tho floor is raised off the ground to a height 

 varying from three to six feet. A. horizontal pole, wedged into the framework of 

 the flo >r from the outside, would thus stick out at right angles to the house and 

 obstruct a passer-by. 



