Speaking of dog-lore generally, it may be remarked that though dogs are very frequently kept by the Malays, it is considered unlucky to keep them. "The dog ... is unlucky. He longs for the death of his master, an event which will involve the slaying of animals at the funeral feast, when the bones will fall to the dogs. When a dog is heard howling at night, he is supposed to be thinking of the broken bones (niat handak mengutib tulang patah)." [322] Even the wild dogs in the jungle [323] are warned not to bark, and are addressed as if they were human:-- "If you bark your windpipe shall burst, If you smack your lips your tongue shall be docked. If you come nearer, you shall break your leg; Return to the big virgin jungle, Return to your caverns and hill-locked basins, To the stream which has no head-waters, To the pond which was never dug, To the waters which bear no passengers, To the fountain-head which is [never] dry. If you do not return, you shall die, Cursed by the First Pen (i.e. the Human Tongue), Pierced by the twig of a gomuti-palm, [324] Impaled by a palm thatch-needle, Transfixed by a porcupine's quill." Bears and Monkeys "The Bear [325] is believed to be the mortal foe of the Tiger, which he sometimes defeats in single combat. (Bruang, the Malay word for 'bear,' has a curious resemblance to our word 'Bruin.' [326]) A story is told of a tame bear which a Malay left in charge of his house and of his sleeping child while he was absent from home. On his return he missed his child, the house was in disorder, as if some struggle had taken place, and the bear was covered with blood. Hastily drawing the conclusion that the bear had killed and devoured the child, the enraged father slew the animal with his spear, but almost immediately afterwards he found the carcase of a tiger, which the faithful bear had defeated and killed, and the child emerged unharmed from the jungle, where she had taken refuge. It is unnecessary to point out the similarity of this story to the legend of Beth-Gelert. It is evidently a local version of the story of the Ichneumon and the Snake in the Pancha-tantra." [327] Monkeys and men have always been associated in native tradition, and Malay folklore is no exception to the rule. Thus we get the tradition of the great man-like ape, the Mawas (a reminiscence of the orang-outang or mias of Borneo), which is said to make shelters for itself in the forks of trees, and to be born with the blade of a cutlass (woodknife) in place of the bone of the forearm, so that it is able to cut down the undergrowth as it walks through the jungle. It is believed, moreover, occasionally to carry off and mate with human kind. [328]