Malay Magic: Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay PeninsulaSkeat, Walter William
Religion
Malay Magic: Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula
Skeat, Walter William
Magic -- Malay Peninsula; Malays (Asian people) -- Folklore; Malays (Asian people) -- Social life and customs
"There was a woman who had a child which had just learnt to sit up
(tahu dudok), and to which she gave the name of 'Sarilang.' One day
she took the child to the river-side in order to bathe it, but during
the latter operation it slipped from her grasp and fell into the
river. The mother shrieked and wept, but as she did not know how to
dive she had to return home without her child. That night she dreamed
a dream, in which her child appeared and said, 'Weep no more, mother,
I have turned into a crocodile, and am now called 'Grandsire Sarilang'
('Toh Sarilang): if you would meet me, come to-morrow to the spot
where you lost me.' Next morning, therefore, the mother repaired to
the river and called upon the name of her child, whereupon her child
rose to the surface, and she saw that from the waist downwards he had
already turned into a crocodile, though he was still human down to the
waist. Now the child said, 'Come back again after fourteen days, and
remember to bring an egg and a plantain (banana).' She therefore went
again at the time appointed, and having called upon him by his new name
('Toh Sarilang), he again came to the surface, when she saw that from
the waist upwards he had also now turned into a crocodile. So she gave
him the egg and the plantain, and he devoured them, and when he had
done so he said, 'Whenever the crocodiles get ferocious (ganas), and
commence to attack human beings, take a plantain, an egg, and a handful
of parched rice, and after scattering the rice on the river, leave the
egg and the plantain on the bank, calling upon my name ('Toh Sarilang)
[494] as you do so, and their ferocity will immediately cease.'"
The notes on crocodile folklore which will now be given were reprinted
in the Selangor Journal from the "Perak Museum Notes" of Mr. Wray.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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