it is most commonly called. These stick-insects are believed by the Selangor
Malays to produce the sounds to which Mr. Wray refers, and in order to account
for their peculiar character a story is told, the main features of which are as
follows:—
Once upon a time a married couple fell out, and the husband surreptitiously
introduced stones into the cooking-pot in place of the yams which his wife was
cooking. Then he went off to climb for a cocoa-nut, and as he climbed, he
mocked her by calling out “Masak bĕlum? Masak bĕlum?” (“Are they cooked
yet? Are they cooked yet?”). What she did by way of retaliation is not clear, but
as he climbed and mocked her, she is said to have retorted, “Panjat bĕlum?
Panjat bĕlum?” (“Have you climbed it yet? Have you climbed it yet?”), a reply
which clearly shows that her woman’s wit had been at work, and that she was
not going to allow her husband to get the better of her.^151 However this may be,
a deadlock ensued, the result of which was that both parties were transformed
into stick-insects, but were yet condemned to mock each other as they had done
during the period of their human existence.
I have often from my boat, during dark nights on the Langat river, listened to the
weird note which my Malays invariably ascribed to these insects, and which is
not inaptly represented by one of the Malay names for them, viz. “bĕlum-
bĕlam.” I have not yet, however, succeeded in identifying the real producer of
the note, of which all I can say at present is, that although it may not be itself
discoverable, the Malays look upon it as a certain guide to the localities where
the Malacca-canes grow.