FASCICULI MALATENSES 
301 
it to topple over. The adults are very pugnacious, and if two individuals 
happen to meet face to face, a hostile demonstration always takes place ; they 
rush together, raising and depressing their dorsal fins with great rapidity, but 
do not appear to injure one another in any way, and soon part and continue 
their course. 
The chief vertebrate enemies of the “ walking” fish in the Patani States 
are fishing hawks, monitor lizards,* and possibly others.’ 
The Malays call the fish of this and the preceding genus Ikan timhakul — 
a name of very doubtful significance, as the native story^ which attempts to 
connect it with bakul (a basket) is obviously invented to explain the name, 
which has probably no connexion with timhakau (tobacco) either. At Patani 
the flesh of these fish is sometimes eaten raw, being considered a powerful 
tonic or aphrodisiac, probably on account of their extraordinary vigour in an 
element so uncongenial to their class. N.A. 
SPHYRAENIDAE 
20. Sphyraena jello, C. and V. 
Sphyraena jello, Cuv. and VaL^ iii, p. 349. 
One specimen from Patani. 
‘ The Ikan kakachang (lentil fish) of the Patani fishermen ; formerly the 
object of a family cult^ at Patani (originally, it is said, on the coast of 
Kelantan), and still reverenced by certain families at Tanjong Budi.’ 
PLEURONECTIDAE 
21. Cynoe:lossus macrolepidotus (Blkr.) 
Plagusia macrolepidotus, Blkr.^ Pleuron^ p. 25. 
‘ This is the Ikan sa-hlah (half, or split fish) of the Patani Malays, but 
the name is probably applied to different flat fish in different parts of the 
Peninsula.’ 
SILURIDAE 
22. Plotosus canius, Ham. Buch. 
Plotosus canius. Ham. Buch.., Fish. Ganges, pp. 142, 347, pi. xv, fig. 44. 
One specimen, one-and-a-half inches long. 
‘Young of the ikan sembilah. The spines of this fish — probably several 
species of Silurids are included in the Malay name — are said to be very 
poisonous, causing great pain and swelling, and occasionally even death, to 
human beings scratched by them when wading.’ 
1. Anted^ p. 157. 
2. Fascic. Malay. — Anthropology.^ part I, pp. 177, 178. 
3 - » » « PP- 74-76. 
