"A horned toad, known as katak bertandok, but not the common one of that name (Megalophrys nasuta, Gunther), has a very bad reputation with the Malays. It is said to live in the jungle on the hills, and wherever it takes up its abode all the trees and plants around wither and die. So poisonous is it, that it is dangerous even to approach it, and to touch or be bitten by it is certain death. "The bite of the common toad (Bufo melanostictus, Cantor) is also said to prove fatal. That toads have no teeth is an anatomical detail that does not seem to be thought worthy of being taken into account. "The supposed venomous properties of this useful and harmless tribe have a world-wide range. In Shakespeare many allusions to it are made; one of them, which mentions the habit of hibernation possessed by those species which inhabit the colder parts of the earth, says-- 'In the poison'd entrails throw, Toad, that under coldest stone Days and nights hast thirty-one, Swelter'd venom sleeping got, Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.' "In another, reference is made to the toad-stone, which seems to be represented in Malayan tradition by the pearl carried in the bodies of the hamadryad, the cobra, and the bungarus, the three most deadly snakes of the Peninsula:-- 'Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in its head.' "There is some foundation of fact for the popular belief, as toads secrete an acrid fluid from the skin, which appears to defend them from the attacks of carnivorous animals." [516] It may not be out of place to give here a Malay tradition about a species of snail:-- "A strange superstition is attached to a small snail which frequents the neighbourhood of the limestone hills in Perak. It belongs to the Cyclophoridæ, and is probably an Alycæus. Among the grass in the shadow of a grazing animal these creatures are to be discovered, and if one of them is crushed it will be found to be full of blood, which has been drawn in a mysterious way from the veins of the animal through its shadow. Where these noxious snails abound, the cattle become emaciated and sometimes even die from the constant loss of blood. In the folklore of other countries many parallels to this occur, but they differ in either the birds, bats, or vampires, who are supposed to prey on the life-blood of their fellows, going direct to the animals to suck the blood, instead of doing so through the medium of their shadows." [517] 4. FISHING CEREMONIES Fish are in many cases credited by the Malay peasant with the same portentous ancestry as that which he attributes to some of the larger animals and birds.