divisions. They are often unintelligible and probably of pre-Malayan origin, but
are sometimes derived from the Malay names of forest trees. As a rule every
reach and point has a name known to the local Malays, even though the river
may run through forest and swamp with only a few villages scattered at intervals
of several miles along its banks.
Of river legends there are not a few. The following extract relates to one of the
largest rivers of the Peninsula, the river Perak, which gives its name to the
largest and most important of the Malay States of the West Coast. Perak means
silver, though none is mined in the country; and the legend is a fair specimen of
the sort of story which grows up round an attempt to account for an otherwise
inexplicable name:—
“On their return down-stream, the Raja and his followers halted at Chigar Galah,
where a small stream runs into the river Perak. They were struck with
astonishment at finding the water of this stream as white as santan (the grated
pulp of the cocoa-nut mixed with water). Magat Terawis, who was despatched to
the source of the stream to discover the cause of this phenomenon, found there a
large fish of the kind called haruan engaged in suckling her young one. She had
large white breasts from which milk issued.^282
“He returned and told the Raja, who called the river ‘Perak’ (‘silver’), in allusion
to its exceeding whiteness. Then he returned to Kota Lama.”^283
3. REPTILES AND REPTILE CHARMS
The Crocodile
Of the origin of the Crocodile two conflicting stories, at least, are told. One of
these was collected by Sir William Maxwell in Perak; the other was taken down
by me from a Labu Malay in Selangor, but I have not met with it elsewhere; a