18 FOLKLORE Or THE MALAYS. 



Singha-buana is the name of its blade, 



The peeling-knife with a long handle 



Is to split in twain the fibrous betel-nut ; 



Here is a knife from Maharaja Guru 



To cleave the bowels of the Hunter-Spirit. 



I know the origin from which thou springest, 



man of Katapang. 



Get thee back to the forest of Eanchah Mahang. 



Afflict not my body with pain or disease." 



In charms intended to guard him who repeats them, or who 

 wears them written on paper, against the evil influences of the 

 Spectre Huntsman")* the names of the dogs, weapons, &c, constantly 

 vary. The origin of the dreaded demon is always, however, 

 ascribed to Katapang in Sumatra. This superstition strikingly 

 resembles the European legends of the Wild Huntsman, whose shouts 

 the trembling peasants hear above the storm. It is, no doubt, of 

 Aryan origin, and, coming to the Peninsula from Sumatra, seems to 

 corroborate existing evidence tending to shew that it is partly 

 through Sumatra that the Peninsula has received Aryan myths and 

 Indian phraseology. A superstitious prej udice against the use of bam- 

 boo in making a step-ladder for a Malay house and against drying 

 clothes outside a house on poles stuck into the framework, exists 

 in full force among the Perak Malays. The note of the birik-birik 

 at night, telling as it does of the approach of the hantu joemburu, 

 is listened to with the utmost dread and misgiving. The Bataks 

 in Sumatra call this bird by the same name — birik-birik. It is 

 noticeable that in Batak legends regarding the creation of the 

 world, the origin of mankind is ascribed to Putri-Orta-Bulan, the 

 daughter of Batara-Guru, who descended to the earth with a white 

 owl and a dog. | 



* See a similar charm, for protection against this spirit, in use among one of 

 the wild tribes of the peninsula, Journal of the Indian Archepelago, I., 318. In 

 the charm given in the text the names of the forest, dogs and blow-pipe are 

 Malay, Lank ay art is the Sanskrit name for the island of Ceylon, and Singha- 

 buana seems to be composed of two Sanskrit words meaning " lion" and " world." 



t Four or five different versions are in my possession. 



£ Marsden — History of Sumatra, 385. An imperfect version of the story of 

 the hantu pemburu is to be found in 1>E Backer's L' Archive I Indien. 



