few exceptions into good and evil genii.
The most curious feature of the description is perhaps the marked
anthropomorphic character of this serpent, which shows it to be a serpent in little
more than name. It seems, in fact, very probable that we have here a
reminiscence of the Indian “Naga.”^7 Thus we find the rainbow (here divided into
its component parts) described as originating from the serpent’s sword with its
hilt and cross-piece (guard), grass from the hair of its body, trees from the hair of
its head, rain from its tears, and dew from its sweat.
Another account, also obtained from a local magician, contains one or two
additional details about the tree. “Kun,” said God, “Payah^8 kun” said
Muhammad, and a seed was created.
“The seed became a root (lit. sinew), the root a tree, and the tree brought forth
leaves.
“‘Kun,’ said God, ‘Payah kun,’ said Muhammad; ... Then were Heaven and
Earth (created), ‘Earth of the width of a tray, Heaven of the width of an
umbrella.’”
This is a curious passage, and one not over-easy to explain; such evidence as
may be drawn from analogy suggests, however, that the “Earth of the width of a
tray, and Heaven of the width of an umbrella,” may be intended to represent
respectively the “souls” (sĕmangat) of heaven and earth, in which case they
would bear the same relation to the material heaven and earth as the man-shaped
human soul does to the body of a man.
(b) Natural Phenomena
“Most Malays,” says Newbold, “with whom I have conversed on the subject,
imagine that the world is of an oval shape, revolving upon its own axis four
times in the space of one year; that the sun is a circular body of fire moving