“The death of the tiger now establishes the fact of the existence of tigers here,
for asserting which I have been pretty frequently laughed at. However this is not
the Jugra pest, a brute whose death would be matter for general rejoicing, the
one now destroyed being a tigress 8 feet long and 2 feet 8 inches high.”^94
I may add that both the claws and whiskers of tigers are greatly sought after as
charms, and are almost invariably stolen from a tiger when one is killed by a
European. I have also seen at Klang a charm written on tiger’s skin.
The Deer^95
Anthropomorphic ideas are held by the Malays almost as strongly in the case of
the Deer as of any other animal.
The Deer is, by all Malays, believed to have sprung from a man who suffered
from a severe ulcer or abscess (chabuk) on the leg, (which is supposed to have
left its trace on the deer’s legs to this day). Of the Perak form of this legend Sir
William Maxwell writes as follows:—
“The deer (rusa) is sometimes believed to be the metamorphosed body of a man
who has died of an abscess in the leg (chabuk), because it has marks on the legs
which are supposed to resemble those caused by the disease mentioned. Of
course there are not wanting men ready to declare that the body of a man who
has died of chabuk has been seen to rise from the grave and to go away into the
forest in the shape of a deer.”^96
The Selangor legend is practically identical with that current in Perak.
The deer are frequently addressed, in the charms used by the hunters, exactly as
if they were human beings, e.g.—
“If you wish to wear bracelets and rings
Stretch out your two fore-feet.”