; The Tiger-breed families. 
By ZAINuL ABIDIN BIN AHMAD. 
Among the peasant population of Jempul, a settlement of 
Malay villagers along a river of that name in the Kuala Pilah 
District of negri Sembilan, there is a belief that certain families. 
in the local tribe (sukw) of Tiga Batu have a mysterious connec- 
tion with tigers. Report has it that this belhef is not peculiar to: 
Jempul, but extends over a wide area in the Nine States—Juasseh, 
Rembau, Tampin, Terachi, Gunong Pasir, Jelebu and Pantai. The 
writer however has not made a study of the belief in all these places,. 
and this paper deals only with Jempul. For want of a better term 
I call the famihes in question “ The tiger-breed families.” 
The belief is that members of the particular families become: 
tigers after their death; a man becomes a tiger, and a woman a 
tigress. ‘Thus, though the belief recalls the were-tiger and were- 
wolf stories which are widely known and believed in many parts. 
of the world, it is not exactly the same: the one belief supposes the 
transformation to take place at will during life, and the other 
that it takes place only after death. In their life-time as human ~ 
beings members of these families are said to be peculiarly related. 
with certain tigers of the forest, whom they vaguely recognise as. 
incarnations of dead relatives. These tiger “relatives” some- 
times come to the compounds of their human kinsmen, protect 
their cattle from the attack of foreign tigers, their poultry from 
civet-cats (musang) and their paddy-fields or tapioca plantations. 
from the ravages of wild-boars. The visitors are expected es- 
pecially during the nights of Hari Raya, or when there is grave: 
trouble in the family to which they belong. But it is seldom that 
many come together. Usually one or two represent the clan. 
Often a man will warn a friend belonging to one of these famihes,. 
not to make mischief when he becomes a tiger. “ When your turn 
comes to become a tiger” (t.e. when you die) he will say, “I trust 
you will still remain a friend to me, and not do me or my folk 
and cattle any harm. Otherwise I will shoot you. If you require. 
food, you are free to hunt your own fellows in the jungle. Why 
harm our human kind?” Sometimes such words are spoken jest- 
ingly, but more often in a tone of deadly earnestness. 
All this sounds as absurd as it is interesting. But all the 
villagers living within circumference of the families tell the same 
tale. They say that when a member of one of these families is ill, 
there is always one tiger at least haunting the neighbourhood of 
the patient’s house (as though there had been teley yathic communi- 
cation between the two). He comes closer and ven as night ap-. 
proaches, and at such a time nobody dares to go out of the house: 
unaccompanied. The compound of the Malay villager’s house is. 
Jour. Straits Branch. 
