mosquitoes, flies, and the like, means that an enemy is coming to the village, to
dream about eating jack-fruit (nangka) or plantain (pisang) is an indication of
great trouble impending, and so on; an extract from a treatise on this subject is
given in the Appendix, and it is impossible to dwell at greater length upon it
here. Among Malay gamblers special importance is attached to dreams as an
indication of luck in gambling (mimpi paksa or dapat paksa). If the gambler
dreams of “sweeping out the gambling farm” (mĕnyapu pajak), i.e. “breaking the
bank,” or of running amok in it (mĕngamok pajak), or of bailing out the ocean
(mĕnimba lautan), or of the ocean running dry (lautan k’ring), or even of his
breeding maggots on his person (badan bĕrulat), he is confident of great good
fortune in the near future.
As a specimen of the importance traditionally ascribed to dreams, it seems worth
while to give the following popular legend, which also illustrates the type of
folk-tales in which hidden treasure plays a great part:—
“Che Puteh Jambai and his wife were very poor people, who lived many
generations ago at Pulo Kambiri on the Perak river. They had so few clothes
between them that when one went out the other had to stay at home. Nothing
seemed to prosper with them, so leaving Pulo Kambiri, where their poverty
made them ashamed to meet their neighbours, they moved up the river to the
spot since called Jambai. Shortly after they had settled here Che Puteh was
troubled by a portent which has disturbed the slumbers of many great men from
the time of Pharaoh downwards. He dreamed a dream. And in his dream he was
warned by a supernatural visitant to slay his wife, this being, he was assured, the
only means by which he could hope to better his miserable condition.
“Sorely disturbed in mind, but never doubting that the proper course was to
obey, Che Puteh confided to his wife the commands which he had received, and
desired her to prepare for death. The unhappy lady acquiesced with that conjugal
submissiveness which in Malay legends, as in the Arabian Nights, is so
characteristic of the Oriental female when landed in some terrible predicament.
But she craved and obtained permission to first go down to the river and wash
herself with lime juice. So taking a handful of limes she went forth, and,
standing on the rock called Batu Pembunoh, she proceeded to perform her
ablutions after the Malay fashion. The prospect of approaching death, we may
presume, unnerved her, for in dividing the limes with a knife she managed to cut
her own hand and the blood dripped down on the rocks and into the river; as