Perhaps the most extraordinary transformation in which the Malays implicitly believe is that of the Squirrel, which is supposed to be developed from a large caterpillar called ulat sentadu. [336] About the Cat there are many superstitions which show that it is believed to possess supernatural powers. Thus it is supposed to be lucky to keep cats because they long for a soft cushion to lie upon, and so (indirectly) wish for the prosperity of their master. [337] On the other hand, cats must be very carefully prevented from rubbing up against a corpse, for it is said that on one occasion when this was neglected, the badi or Evil Principle which resides in the cat's body entered into the corpse, which thus became endowed with unnatural life and stood up upon its feet. So too the soaking of the cat in a pan of water until it is half-drowned is believed to produce an abundance of rain. [338] It is, besides, believed to be extremely unlucky to kill cats. Of this superstition Mr. Clifford says:-- "It is a common belief among Malays that if a cat is killed he who takes its life will in the next world be called upon to carry and pile logs of wood, as big as cocoa-nut trees, to the number of the hairs on the beast's body. Therefore cats are not killed; but if they become too daring in their raids on the hen-coop or the food rack, they are tied to a raft and sent floating down stream, to perish miserably of hunger. The people of the villages by which they pass make haste to push the raft out again into mid-stream, should it in its passage adhere to bank or bathing-hut, and on no account is the animal suffered to land. To any one who thinks about it, this long and lingering death is infinitely more cruel than one caused by a blow from an axe; but the Malays do not trouble to consider such a detail, and would care little if they did." [339] Before leaving the subject of cats, I must mention the belief that the "fresh-water fish called ikan belidah" was "originally a cat." Sir W. E. Maxwell says that many Malays refuse to eat it for this reason, and adds, "They declare that it squalls like a cat when harpooned, and that its bones are very white and fine like a cat's hairs." [340] A story is also sometimes told to account both for the general similarity of habits of the cat and the tiger and for the fact that the latter, unlike most of the Felidæ, is not a tree-climber. It is to the effect that the cat agreed to teach the tiger its tricks, which it did, with the exception of the art of climbing trees. The tiger, thinking it had learnt all the cat's tricks, proceeded to attack its teacher, when the cat escaped by climbing up a tree; so the tiger never learnt how to climb and cannot climb trees to this day.