"'A Malay, in order to be revenged on his mother-in-law (why, the legend does not relate), shouldered his axe and made his way to the poor woman's house, and began to cut through the posts which supported it. After a few steady chops the whole edifice came tumbling down, and he greeted its fall with a peal of laughter. To punish him for his unnatural conduct he was turned into a bird, and the tebang mentuah (literally, He who chopped down his mother-in-law) may often be heard in the jungle uttering a series of sharp sounds like the chop of an axe on timber, followed by Ha! ha! ha!'" [237] The following account of the bird-lore of the Malay Peninsula was compiled by me from notes supplied to the Selangor Journal [238] by the late Sir William Maxwell:-- The Night-jar (Burong cheroh [239]) takes its name from the word applied to the second stage in the operation of husking rice. Malay women husk rice by pounding it in a mortar with a wooden pestle. The husked grain is then commonly winnowed in a sieve, and the unhusked rice (antah) which remains has to be separated from the husked rice and pounded over again. The second process, which is called ckeroh, is that from which the night-jar derives its name, the quick fancy of the Malay hearing in the note of the bird the slow measured stroke of a pestle (antan) descending in a mortar (lesong). This is possibly the foundation of the legend that the Night-jar is a woman who, while engaged in husking rice by moonlight, was turned into a bird in consequence of a quarrel with her mother. Another name for the night-jar is burong chempak. The Burong sepah putri ("Princess's betel-quid") belongs to the Honey-birds or Bee-eaters, of which there are several species, remarkable chiefly for their brilliant metallic plumage. [A quaint story is told in explanation of its name: once upon a time the Owl (ponggok) fell in love with the Princess of the Moon (Putri Bulan) and asked her to marry him. She promised to do so, if he would allow her first to finish her quid of betel undisturbed; but before finishing it she threw it down to the earth, where it took the form of the small bird in question. The Princess then requested the Owl to make search for it, but as, of course, he was unable to find it, the proposed match fell through. This is the reason why the Owl, to quote the Malay proverb, "sighs longingly to the Moon," and is the type of the plaintive lover. [240]] The Burong tinggal anak (lit. "Good-bye, children" bird) is a small bird whose note is to be heard at the season when the young rice is sprouting (musim padi pechah anak). As soon as her young are hatched out this bird dies in the nest, repeating the words "Tinggal anak" ("Good-bye, children"), and the maggots which breed in her corpse afford an unnatural nourishment to her unsuspecting offspring. Burong diam 'kau Tuah, or "Hold your peace, Tuah," is the name of a small bird which is said to repeat the words--