176 
FASCICULI MALATENSES 
ANTHROPOLOGICAL MISCELLANEA 
THE CLEFT ROCK, THE ROCK THAT CATCHES (FOLK) 
A Malay Story 
[This story was told me by a Singapore Malay living in Patani , ivho said that the Cleft 
Rock was in Malacca. I translated it as he told it me , sentence by sentence , and have thought 
it worth while to publish my translation , as a contrast to the Siamese story that follows , and 
as a good example of the etymological explanations in which the Malays delight. It was told 
me to explain the name of a fish , the Mudhopper ( Periophthalmus), which is called 1 Ikan 
Timbakuip in Patani ; but it will be observed that the said fish is heard no more of after the 
first few sentences. N.A.] 
c There was once a poor man, who had two children, the elder a boy and 
the younger a girl. Their mother went out to look for the fish called Ikan 
Timbakni , which she took, together with their eggs, in a basket ( bakul ). So 
she brought home the eggs, and bade her son look after them ; but he ate 
them. Then she went out to look for more fish, and afterwards came home 
again and asked for the egg s. The boy said that his little sister had eaten 
them. But, when she saw that the eggs were no more, the mother’s heart 
grew a little sore against her children ; and she cooked seven ketupat (triangular 
cakes of glutinous rice packed in strips of palm-leaf), and took a little of her 
own milk, which she placed on a caladium leaf. Then she left the ketupat 
and the milk with her children, and went out, and came to a certain rock, 
called the Cleft Rock, the Rock that Catches (Folk) — Batu Blah , Batu Bertangkop 
— and entered within it, for it had a great hole in its side like a mouth. But 
the boy wept when he saw her going within, and seized her hair, and pulled 
out seven hairs. Then he fetched his little sister, and ran off into the jungle, 
carrying her in his arms. 
‘ For many years these two wandered in the jungle. The boy’s name 
was Bunga Pekan (Flower of the Market), and the girl was called Bunga 
Melor (Jasmine Flower). On a day they saw a hawk carrying off a chicken, 
and the boy went near and struck it from the talons of the hawk ; and he took 
the chicken, and saw that it was a young fighting-cock. So he and his little 
sister carried it between them, one on each side, and they journeyed, but not 
for many moons, until the cock grew big. Then, having journeyed, they 
came near a certain rich city ; and here they built a small hut, for they were 
very poor, and tied it together with their mother’s seven hairs. 
