FASCICULI MALATENSES 
29 
into tigers/ of which power their neighbours across the stream are devoid, 
having faces of the normal human type, 
A few instances of unusually large or otherwise abnormal animals being 
considered kramat may be given. Perhaps this quality is more frequently 
ascribed to large snakes than to any other beast or bird, and we have already 
seen that ail cobras and hamadryads, and also the numerous species described 
by the Patani Malays as * axe snakes/ are regarded as sacred and possessed 
of evil souls or badi y because of certain peculiarities in their coloration and in 
the movements of their eyes. Large pythons, that is to say, large individuals 
of the species Python reticulntm and, prohably, Python molurus y are frequently 
considered sacred by the inhabitants of villages near which they take up their 
abode, and at Jar urn I was told that a European, who had been the last white 
man to travel through Rhaman before my own journey from Upper Perak to 
Patani, had been seized with a bad attack of fever, because either he or one 
of his followers had shot a snake of the kind. When travelling upon the 
Patani River, above Bendang Stah, 1 heard a peculiar sound proceeding from 
a wood on the bank, and was told by my raftsmen that it was the voice of a 
huge python* which lived in this wood coiled round a palm-trunk. They 
added that in spite of its monstrous size it was quite gentle, and that people 
sometimes gave it fowls. Near Berusong, on the Temongoh River, I was 
shown a peculiarly shaped rock on which a sacred elephant of gigantic stature 
was said to sharpen its tusks. It was believed to have done so for generations, 
not being subject to death, and was also reputed to have one foot shorter 5 than 
the other three. White animals, especially albinos, are generally held sacred, 
either in a major or minor degree. The so-called white elephants, which are 
x. Cf. Skeat, Malay Magtc % pp. 160-163. I have not heard the power of turning himself into a tiger ascribed 
locally to any native of the Patani States, though several persons in this district told me that both the members of 
the Sumatran tribe and also certain natives of Java could da so 5, but Skeat records the existence of the belief in 
Kelantan with regard to the local Semang medicine-men ( Journ , Attthrop. Jmt. 1902, pp. 137, 138}. The opposite belief, 
however, namely, that there are certain tigers which, being great magicians, can turn themselves into human beings, 
is prevalent in Rhaman and Patani, It is believed that these tiger magicians cannot alter the shape of their teeth, so 
that they can always be recognized when in human guise, and any person who has protruding canines is thus liable to 
be accused on the one hand of being a tiger in disguise, and on the other, of being n cannibal 3 anthropophagy being 
connected, in the opinion of the Malays and Siamese, with huge fang-like teeth. The same superstition about tigers 
being able to change themselves into human beings was prevalent in Malacca in the fifteenth century (sec Grpenveldt’s 
papers on the Chinese accounts of the Malay Peninsula, translated in Mticellantom Paptrt relating to Ltd*ChinOy 
Second Series, VoL I, p. 245. London, 1887). 
2, It is extremely interesting to compare the relics of serpent-worship that persist in the Patani States with 
the cult of the great snake which is said to have been formerly worshipped by the Malays of Kedah, which they 
consulted regarding the election of their sultans, and to which they sacrificed their virgin daughters. (Cf. Sherard 
Osborne, My Journal in Malayan p. 352. London, i860}. It is believed in Jalor that certain trees art 
haunted by a spirit which takes the form of a snake, and that 3 great snake or dragon (ruga) dwells in certain 
mountains, while a rock on Bukit Jalor that i* thought to resemble a dragon's head is believed to presage great 
power to the rajas of Jalor. In the winter of 1900 the summit of Rukit Biloh, where an ancient place of execution, 
consisting of a chasm down which criminals were thrown, was used by the rajas of Rhaman until comparatively 
recent times, suddenly split open in a new place, and a terrible storm swept down to the coast with torrents of rain. 
This occurrence, probably due to 1 landslip produced by a tornado, was locally ascribed to the dragon of the mountain 
breaking loose and rushing to the sea, concealed in the darkness and the rain. A similar event, on a smaller stale, 
was also said to hive taken place in one of the limestone hills near Biscrat during the game season, and it was 
evident that a landslip or an earthquake had taken place in this hill between my two visits to it, in 1899 ami 19m. 
3. Cf. Skeat, Malay Magic, pp. 70, 71. 
