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
I have never yet, however, heard of any shrine being dedicated to
a Chinaman, and it is probable that this species of canonisation is
confined (at least in modern times) to local celebrities professing
the Muhammadan religion, as would certainly be the case of the Malays
and Javanese mentioned in the foregoing paragraph, and quite possibly
too in the case of the Sakai.
It is true that Chinese often worship at these shrines--just as, on
the same principle, they employ Malay magicians in prospecting for
tin; but there appear to be certain limits beyond which they cannot
go, as it was related to me when I was living in the neighbourhood,
that a Chinaman who had, in the innocence of his heart, offered at a
Moslem shrine a piece of the accursed pork, was pounced upon and slain
before he reached home by one of the tigers which guarded the shrine.
The shrine of 'Toh Kamarong is one of the most celebrated shrines in
the Langat district, the saint's last resting-place being guarded by a
white elephant and a white tiger, the latter of which had been a pet
(pemainan) of his during his lifetime. In this respect it is exactly
similar to the shrine of 'Toh Parwi of Pantei in Sungei Ujong, which is
similarly guarded, both shrines having been erected on the seashore,
it is said, in the days when the sea came much farther inland than it
does at present. The fame of 'Toh Kamarong filled the neighbourhood,
and it is related that on one occasion an irate mother exclaimed,
of a son of hers who was remarkable for his vicious habits, "May the
'Toh Kramat Kamarong fly away with him." Next day the boy disappeared,
and all search proved fruitless, until three days later 'Toh Kamarong
appeared to her in a dream, and informed her that he had carried the
boy off, as she had invited him to do, and that if she were to look
for his footprints she would be able to discover them inside the
pad-tracks of a tiger one of whose feet was smaller than the rest,
and which was then haunting the spot. She did so, and discovered her
son's footprints exactly as the saint had foretold. This Ghost-tiger,
which no doubt must be identified with 'Toh Kamarong's "pet," used
to roam the district when I was stationed in the neighbourhood, and
both I and, I believe, the then District Engineer (Mr. Spearing), saw
this tiger's tracks, and can vouch for the fact that one footprint
was smaller than the rest. This curious feature is thought by the
local Malays at least, to be one of the specially distinctive marks
of a rimau kramat, or Ghost-tiger, just as the possession of one tusk
that is smaller than the other is the mark of a Ghost-elephant. [133]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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