CHAEMS AND AMULETS 



57 



felled the house of its father-in-law," in accordance with 

 a very old, oft-told legend. The very peculiar note of 

 the? bird gives the point to the story : " It commences 

 with a series of whoops, uttered at intervals of about 

 half a minute for five or ten minutes ; then the interval 

 between each whoop grows shorter and shorter, till the 

 ichoop, whoopj whoop is repeated very quickly ten or a 

 dozen times, the bu'd ending up by going into a harsh, 

 quacking laugh." The bii'ds are confined exclusively 

 to deep jungle. The Kelantan version of the legend as 

 told by a bomor is as follows : " Once upon a time there 

 was a poor man who earned an honest living by gi'owing 

 vegetables for sale ; he lived alone in a jungle hut with 

 his wife and daughter. In due time, a youth came to 

 seek the daughter's hand in marriage, and at length the 

 father gave consent ; but soon after, the happy couple 

 began to quarrel with theu^ parents. The son-in-law 

 was idle and too lazy to do anything but sleep. They 

 all began to quarrel so much, that at last both the son- 

 in-law and his wife took axes and made ready to cut 

 dovm the wooden supports of their father's house. 

 The poor peasant said, * If you cut down the posts, I wiU 

 curse you, so that both of you will turn into birds.' 

 But the young people paid no heed to his words and 

 proceeded to chop the posts until down crashed the 

 hut ; then and there they laughed in their folly. 

 Then and there each of them was tunied into a hornbill, 

 that called torok or humng Uhang rumah bapok jmntita 

 (' the bird that felled the house of the father-in-law 

 Henceforth they were condemned to imitate for ever the 

 pecuhar cry of this jungle bird : Kong-kong, kong-kong, 

 kmig-hmg ; berok, berok^ herok ; Ha f Ha ! Ha !• — which 

 thus perpetuates the legend ; for kong-kong, kong-kong 

 suggests the chop, chop, chop, chop of the axes, b^rok, 

 Mrok, hirok (pronomiced quickly, somewhat as ' bro ') 



