28 
FASCICULI MALATENSES 
From what has been said in the present paper and in the former one 
about the customs and beliefs of the Patani fishermen, it will be seen that 
animals are sometimes believed to have attained sanctity, with its concom- 
mitant qualities, through being associated with a powerful medicine-man, or 
even because of actual descent from some mythical person, as the * white 1 
crocodile is descended from Betimor, who became Toh Sri Lam ; and it is 
perhaps natural that any easily recognized individual of a powerful species, if 
well-known in a district, should often become connected with the local folk¬ 
lore or the local saint. To the Malays of Patani, moreover, as to many 
primitive people, natural deformity is the outward and visible sign of an inward 
and spiritual abnormality, generally of an extraordinary increase of power. In 
some cases it Is not difficult for even an educated European to see why 
this should be so, but in others the reason is more obscure. For 
example, it is obvious that no great exercise of the imagination is necessary 
to ascribe to a gigantic individual a ( giant’s strength,’ even though giants are 
not always stronger than normal Individuals, and it is quite reasonable that 
persons who regard white as a holy and imperial colour should reverence albinos 
as peculiarly sacred ; but it is not obvious why an elephant or a tiger with 
a withered or shortened limb should be considered sacrosanct, except, perhaps, 
because of the rarity of such conditions among powerful animals whose survival 
depends to a great extent upon their strength. In my former paper I noted 
instances of human beings who were believed, because of a natural disfigurement, 
to wield supernatural powers, and throughout the Patani States it is asserted 
that hairy men have it in them to become magicians. I cannot explain why 
the black mark on his face should have been regarded as conferring on ‘Prince 
Black Cheek 1 the power of regulating the weather at sea and of slaying his 
enemies by a curse, except on the general principle enunciated ; but it is 
possible, I think, that hairiness of the body and face, a rare condition among 
the Malays themselves, may have become associated in their minds with some 
foreign race (perhaps the Arabs or Hindus), from whom their medicine-men 
believed that their charms and incantations were largely derived, or who were 
reputed, as a race, to be peculiarly skilled in magic. 
An instance of a somewhat similsar belief, though Its origin is possibly 
more ancient, may be dealt with in this connexion, namely, that a certain 
Sumatran tribe, comprising half of the Korinchis and living in the territory of 
Achin, but separated from the other Korinchis by a river, have no hollow in 
the centre of the space between their upper lips and their noses. It is this race 
who are said in the Siamese States to have the power of turning themselves 
