Not Luck that is adventitious,
But Luck incarnate with their bodies.
Go tread upon the heaped and rotting leaves,
And never desert the scent.”Speaking of dog-lore generally, it may be remarked that though dogs are very
frequently kept by the Malays, it is considered unlucky to keep them. “The dog
... is unlucky. He longs for the death of his master, an event which will involve
the slaying of animals at the funeral feast, when the bones will fall to the dogs.
When a dog is heard howling at night, he is supposed to be thinking of the
broken bones (niat handak mengutib tulang patah).”^113
Even the wild dogs in the jungle^114 are warned not to bark, and are addressed as
if they were human:—
“If you bark your windpipe shall burst,
If you smack your lips your tongue shall be docked.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
If you come nearer, you shall break your leg;. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Return to the big virgin jungle,
Return to your caverns and hill-locked basins,
To the stream which has no head-waters,
To the pond which was never dug,
To the waters which bear no passengers,
To the fountain-head which is [never] dry.
If you do not return, you shall die,
Cursed by the First Pen (i.e. the Human Tongue),
Pierced by the twig of a gomuti-palm,^115
Impaled by a palm thatch-needle,
Transfixed by a porcupine’s quill.”