74 
FASCICULI MALATENSES 
Fish Cults 
Not the least interesting feature of the beliefs of the Patani fisher-folk is 
that certain families ( 'kaum ), forming only a small proportion of their numbers, 
are named after certain fishes, which they refrain from killing or eating. Each 
family of the kind has a particular fish that its members reverence. It is 
difficult to give a satisfactory account of these fish cults, because the whole 
system is now in a moribund state, though the Patani Malays have been pro- 
bably as little subjected to direct European influence in recent times as any 
Malays still living. The following information was gathered by questioning 
a considerable number of fishermen, some of whom belonged to fish families 
and some of whom did not, after the existence of the cults had been discovered 
accidently. They were quite willing to tell what they knew, but seemed, in 
many cases, even though proud of belonging to one of the families, to be 
really ignorant of details. Old men stated that they themselves were less 
strict in observing the prohibitions regarding their family cults than their 
fathers had been, while their sons were even more lax than they ; young men 
said that the prohibitions were instituted so many generations back that they 
were becoming less binding, or dogmatically asserted that these prohibitions 
had been laid on a definite number of generations, the last of which was that 
of their fathers. The members of a family, however, still call the particular 
fish of their reverence, Datoh , i.e., ‘ Grandfather’ or ‘Lord ’—a title often given 
by Malays to real or legendary personages or beings for whom respect is felt. 
They also refrain from eating their Datoh , but how strictly the prohibition 
against killing is observed depends on individual conscientiousness ; thus, one 
man will go through the catch after every haul of the net, and will throw back 
into the sea any specimens accidentally included, while another, belonging to 
the same family, will content himself with refraining from discriminate killing, 
not troubling to prevent his Datoh from dying with the other fish, and having 
no scruple about selling its body to persons who do not practice its cult. 
When a member of a fish family is sick or unfortunate, or even when one 
of his friends, who is not a member of the family, is sick or unfortunate, he 
makes a sacrifice to his Datoh , and begs him that the trouble may cease forth- 
with. The sacrifice consists of rice cooked with turmeric — a compound very 
commonly used in ceremonies of a religious or magical nature in all parts of 
the Malay Peninsula and also in the Archipelago — of parched rice, and of wax 
tapers. So far as I could discover, no formula or dedication is now used, the 
prayer accompanying the sacrifice being made in the offerer’s own words. The 
offering is laid on the sea-shore. 
