Fables and Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest

[1] To' Panjang or "Father Lanky" (as he is generally called) was one of the earliest apostles of Islam in the State of Patani and enjoyed a great reputation. At length however Sah Nyaya the Unjust King came to the throne and requested To' Panjang to assist in casting some cannon, the copper being placed in his charge for the purpose.

But one day a foreign merchant came to visit him and begged for a portion of the copper, which the Saint gave him, intending no harm thereby. Taxed by the Raja with stealing his copper, To' Panjang admitted his mistake and was condemned to die the death. A pupil of his own was chosen to execute the sentence, but refused to do so, whereupon both master and pupil were strangled [1] and their bodies thrown into the Patfini River, which then escaped to the sea in the neighbourhood of Jámbu. [2]

But when they were thrown into the river the two corpses [2] instead of sinking stood miraculously upright in the water, and in this position travelled continually against the stream, both at flood and ebb.

At length however the Raja commanded the remains of both saints to be buried ashore, but as often as the bodies were measured for their shrouds, so often they kept outgrowing them. At length therefore a goat was sacrificed and the shrouds having then been measured again were at last found to be of the correct length. The burial therefore was completed; but up to this day the grave-stones of both saints continue to make miraculous movements in proof of the divine nature of To' Panjang and his pupil.

These two tombs are very potent shrines and they lie about two or three miles along Patani Point.

The grave-stones at head and foot are usually found to be about ten feet apart, but it is customary to measure the distance between them twice running in order to take omens as to the length of one's future life. The second measurement always comes different from the first; but if the second measurement proves to be the longer, one's future life will be long in the like proportion. [5]

[1] This story was from the same source as the last. Father Lanky's real name was, I was told, Seh (= Sheikh?) Rombok.

[2] Jámbu is the chief town of the Jering District; it lies a few miles S. E. from Patani Town.

[3] According to another version, they were both beheaded.

[4] According to another version (though I cannot say, a more likely one) it was the granite grave-stones which miraculously floated and which ever since have continued to move (by way of mute protest, it may be supposed, against the high-handed action of the Unjust King), even when set at rest ashore.

[5] I myself paid a visit to the tombs of the two saints and was requested to try my fortune, all the neighbouring villagers turning out to watch the proceedings. The two graves, which were protected by a low wall and a roof, had been made, I found, in the sand, and were covered by long low mounds of sand from head to foot. This circumstance, combined with the fact that the measuring instrument was a short stick (supposed to be a cubit long, corresponding exactly to the length of the operator's arm as measured from elbow to middle finger tip), made the task a harder one than might have been expected. Each time a cubit was measured, a furrow was made in the sand to mark the place, and the loose sand falling in on both sides of the furrow, it was by no means easy to be sure of the exact centre of the furrow when the next cubit came to be measured. Fortunately however, in my own case, the error came out on the right side, as the second measurement came to a little more than the first; a result on which I was warmly congratulated by my Malay friends.