Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra72741916roya).pdf/175

 NOTES ON MALAY HISTORY.

In Chau Ju-kua's Chu-fan-chi," translated by Hirt and Rockhill, under the heading "Palembang, San-fo-ts'i," p. 61, the following passage occurs:—

"There is an old tradition that the ground in this country once suddenly gaped open and out of the cavern came many myriads of cattle, which rushed off in herds into the mountains, though the people all tried to get them for food. Afterwards the crevice got stopped up with bamboo and trees and disappeared."

The editors have rightly surmised that this contains a reference to the legendary etymology of the place-name "Menangkabau," in Central Sumatra. It evidently represents one of the many variant ways in which "popular etymology," as it is called, has attempted to explain this obscure name. The second half is always identified (rightly or wrongly) with the Malay word for "buffalo," but in other respects the explanations are very various. In connection with this Chinese authority, the chief point of interest is that he speaks of the legend as "an old tradition:" evidently it had been current for some time before his own date (which was about the middle of the 13th century of our era); and this goes to show that the Menangkabau country was known by that name from a considerably earlier period. that the real meaning of the name had been forgotten and there had been time for legends to grow up around it.

In Wang Ta-yuan's "Tao i chih lio" (dated 1349 A.D. and recently partially translated by Rockhill in T'oung Pao, March 1915), under the heading "Hsien," p. 100, the following passage occurs:—

"The people are much given to piracy; whenever there is an uprising in any other country, they at once embark in as many