Fables and Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest

[1] There is a place called Ulu Setiu' in the country of Trenggãnu, where the Tigers are penned in a fold called "Kándang Bãlok." Within this Fold there are two lakes or ponds. By swimming through one of these ponds (on setting out for a journey) the Tigers turn themselves into men, and by swimming through the other (on their return) they change themselves back into Tigers [2] For within the Fold itself the Tigers always retain the shape of beasts, with the exception of the Tiger-chief who always appears in the form of a man. It is this Chief whom men call by the name of The 'Tiger Devil' or 'Tiger Demon [3] and who enters into the bodies of sorcerers when they invoice the Tiger Spirit.

A sorcerer in a trance was once in former days seized by this Tiger-chief, who slung him across his shoulder and carried him off to the Tigers' Fold, On reaching the Fold, however, the Tiger-chief kept the sorcerer for safety in his own house, which was built upon four posts of extraordinary height. From this position the sorcerer beheld the baffled herd of hungry tigers who prowled around the posts of the house when they smelt the smell of a man, although they did not dare to attack it for fear of their Chief. For seven days and seven nights the sorcerer was thus imprisoned, but he then succeeded in making his escape, and on returning to his family he related all that he had seen and heard in the Fold of the Tigers.

[1] The scene of this story is laid in the district of Ulu Setiu, in the East-Coast Malay State of Trenggãnu. The story of the Tigers' Fold is a favourite subject with Malay story-tellers, the Fold being usually described as situated upon any neighbouring hill or mountain of considerable height, e.g. Gunong Ledang or Mount Ophir, a well-known mountain in the interior of Malacca territory (about 4000 ft.).

[2] According to some accounts of the Malays the Tigers have a regular form of Government and a town of their own, the houses of which have their framework made of human bones and are thatched with women's hair.

[3] "Pong Mor" or Hantu Bêlian.