88 MALAY PROVERBS. 



has already been published by others, to examine careful 1)" the 

 works of Favre and Klinkert, the compilation of the following- 

 pages has involved more labour than their number would suggest. 

 That they have been put together during the very moderate 

 leisure permitted by official occupations will perhaps be an excuse 

 for errors which may be discovered by later students. 



1. Enggang lain, ranting patah. 



" The hornbill flies past, and the branch breaks. " 



A saying often employed when circumstantial evidence seems 

 to encourage suspicion against a person who is really innocent. 

 The hornbill or rhinoceros-bird has a very peculiar flight, and 

 the sound of its wings can be distinctly heard as it flies far over- 

 head. 



There are several kinds of hornbills in the Peninsula, and one 

 variety with a very singular note is called by the Malay tebang 

 meniuakj a nickname in justification of which the following 

 story is told. A Malay, in order to be revenged on his mother- 

 in-law, shouldered his axe and made his way to the poor woman's 

 house and began to cut through the posts which supported 

 it. After a few steady chops, the whole edifice came tumbling 

 down, and he greeted its fall with a peal of laughter. To punish 

 him for his unnatural conduct, he was turned into a bird and 

 the lebang mentuali (feller of mother-in-law) may often be 

 heard in the jungle uttering a series of sharp sounds like the 

 chops of an axe on timber, followed by Ha, Ha, Ha. 



2. Ada bras, tar oh didalam pddi. 



"If you have rice put it away under the un -husked grain " 

 An injunction to secrecy. An intention to injure any one should 

 be kept secret, otherwise the person concerned may come to 

 know of it and frustrate it. 



3. Ada Jtujau ad a pauas 

 Ada hari buleh holds. 



" Now it is wet and now it is fine, 

 A day will come for retaliation." 



A proverb for the consolation of the vanquished. As sun- 

 shine and rain alternate, so the loser of to-day may be the 

 conqueror of to-morrow. Quickness at resenting an injury has 

 always been held to be a prevailing characteristic of the Malay 

 nature. Newbold (vol. II, p. 18G) says that he had seen Malay 

 letters in which, in allusion to the desire of avenging an insult, 



