or,
“Hold thy peace, Tuah,
My k’ris (dagger) is with me.”The story runs that once upon a time there was a man who had a slave called
Tuah, who answered him back, and with whom he accordingly found fault, using
the words given above. In the transport of his rage he was turned into a bird.
The bird called Kuau in Perak (kuau is the name given in Malacca and Selangor
to the argus pheasant, which in Perak is called kuang) is about the size of the
mynah (gambala kĕrbau), and is said to have been metamorphosed from a
woman, the reason of whose transformation is not known. It is said to be
unknown on the right bank of the Perak River.
The “‘Kap-kap’ bird” is the name of a night-bird of evil omen, whose note heard
at night prognosticates death.
The Tearer of the shroud (Burong charik kapan) is also a night-bird, with a slow,
deliberate note which the Malays declare sounds exactly like the tearing of
cloth.^32 This signifies the tearing of the shroud, and unerringly forebodes death.
Yet another night-bird ominous of approaching dissolution is the Tumbok
larong. This bird, like the two preceding, is probably a variety of owl; the first
and third are only found inland at a distance from the sea.
’Toh katampi (“Old-man-winnow-the-rice-for-the-burial-feast,” as Sir Frank
Swettenham calls him,^33 ) is a species of horned owl, which derives its name
from a word meaning to winnow (tampi, mĕnampi). Malays say that this bird has
a habit of treading upon the extremities of its own wings, and fluttering the
upper part while thus holding them down. This singular habit produces a sound
resembling that of winnowing.
The ’Toh katampi is larger than the Jampuk, another species of owl, which is
popularly supposed to enter the fowl-house and there live on the intestines of
fowls, which it extracts during life by means of a certain charm (ʿelmu pĕlali, a
charm similar to those used by the Malays for filing teeth, etc.) which it uses in
order to perform the operation painlessly.