The Pelandok and the Rotan 

 Cutters.* 



Once on a time they say two rotan cutters were forwan- 

 dered in a wood and had to spend the night there. Now one 

 of them was a coward. Indeed he was simply wild with 

 fright. The result was that his friend, the brave man, was 

 greatly distressed to see his companion's state of mind. If 

 he put him on the right he was frightened, and if he put him 

 on the left he was frightened too. So he put his friend's head 

 between his own legs, and his own head between his friends 

 legs, while he embraced his friend round the waist, telling his 

 friend at the same time to grasp him in the same manner. The 

 consequence was that the brave man's face was at the coward's 

 back and the coward's face was at the brave man's back, while 

 each embraced the other. 



It happened just at that time His Majesty Stripes, i.e., 

 the tiger, was prowling round the jungle looking for his food, 

 when he noticed these two forwandered friends, who seemed 

 just like some strange new animal with two heads and four 

 hands. He was much astonished and wished to go close, but 

 was just a little frightened. So he went on. He had just got 

 out of sight when he ran into a mouse deer and said to him, 

 " Wahay, Wise Man of the Woods, what is the name of that 

 animal there with two heads and four hands and four feet that 

 thy servant has just met ? " The mouse deer, who at once 

 knew that it must be men who were behaving like that, re- 

 plied promptly, " Oh, Your Majesty Stripes, do you not know 

 that this is what men call Sang Kinot, who is said to have 

 devoured of old time all your grand-fathers, great-grand-fathers, 

 great-great-grand-fathers and great-great-great-grand-fathers ?" 

 Such is the story of how the mouse deer by his cleverness 

 saved the two lost men from being eaten alive by the tiger. 



* A short tale by Penghulu Haji Mohamed Nasir, bin Kanda Mat 

 Sen, of Hutan Melintang. Lower Perak. He is a Perak Malay. Ke 

 cannot recollect the source from which he learnt it. 



Jour. Straits Branch R. A. Soc. No. 48, 1907. 



