Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra85861922roya).pdf/88

 The Tiger-breed families.

Among the peasant population of Jempul, a settlement of Malay villagers along a river of that name in the Kuala Pilah District of negri Sembilan, there is a belief that certain families in the local tribe (suku) of Tiga Batu have a mysterious connection with tigers. Report has it that this belief is not peculiar to Jempul, but extends over a wide area in the Nine States—Juasseh, Rembau, Tampin, Terachi, Gunong Pasir, Jelebu and Pantai. The writer however has not made a study of the belief in all these places, and this paper deals only with Jempul. For want of a better term I call the families in question "The tiger-breed families."

The belief is that members of the particular families become tigers after their death; a man becomes a tiger, and a woman a tigress. Thus, though the belief recalls the were-tiger and were-wolf stories which are widely known and believed in many parts of the world, it is not exactly the same: the one belief supposes the transformation to take place at will during life, and the other that it takes place only after death. In their life-time as human beings members of these families are said to be peculiarly related with certain tigers of the forest, whom they vaguely recognise as incarnations of dead relatives. These tiger "relatives" sometimes come to the compounds of their human kinsmen, protect their cattle from the attack of foreign tigers, their poultry from civet-cats (musang) and their paddy-fields or tapioca plantations from the ravages of wild-boars. The visitors are expected especially during the nights of Hari Raya, or when there is grave trouble in the family to which they belong. But it is seldom that many come together. Usually one or two represent the clan. Often a man will warn a friend belonging to one of these families, not to make mischief when he becomes a tiger. "When your turn comes to become a tiger" (i.e. when you die) he will say, "I trust you will still remain a friend to me, and not do me or my folk and cattle any harm. Otherwise I will shoot yon. If you require food, you are free to hunt your own fellows in the jungle. Why harm our human kind?" Sometimes such words are spoken jestingly, but more often in a tone of deadly earnestness.

All this sounds as absurd as it is interesting. But all the villagers living within circumference of the families tell the same tale. They say that when a member of one of these families is ill, there is always one tiger at least haunting the neighbourhood of the patient's house (as though there had been telepathic communication between the two). He comes closer and closer as night approaches, and at such a time nobody dares to go out of the house unaccompanied. The compound of the Malay villager's house is