Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra85861922roya).pdf/89

 usually surrounded with scrub and patches of low-lying shrubs: it is in these that the tiger has his hiding place during those anxious moments of the patient's illness. If the illness is serious, or the patient is dying, the tiger will show signs of trouble and uneasiness. He groans, makes piteous noises and restlessly moves from one end of the compound to the other. Occasionally in his seeming anxiety for the patient's condition, he encounters the human visitors who pass with their torches to or from the patient's house. But he is harmless, though the people have their hearts in their mouths. The dying patient in the house seems no longer conscious of his or her identity as a human being. He losses about, grinds his teeth and looks wild. manifesting a hundred and one of the characteristics of a tiger, trying to force out a tail (mĕnghějan ekor) from the coccyx, and often giving unmistakable responses to the signals from his tiger-friend below. Very often more than one tiger will come and make circuits round the house. With the first peep of day the inmates of the jungle betake themselves to the nearest bushes, showing themselves at times, and making their presence felt all through the day. The following night brings them back to their sentinel routine. But they are not to be harmed nor do they do any harm. The patient breathes his last and then all is silent till the burial is over.

In ordinary cases the prospective tiger dies peacefully, and then becomes a tiger. No one has ever cared or dared to go and watch what really happens at the grave during the few nights following the burial. They say that some days after the burial, the white shroud (kain kapan) of the buried body is found lying besides the grave, torn and tattered: and a hole of the size of a man's body is found to have been made into the grave, while the footprints of tigers are seen everywhere. From this it is concluded that the tigers must take the corpse and bear it (usong) into the forest where the metamorphosis takes place in some inexplicable way. A tiger representing the dead person makes his appearance shortly afterwards. Even if the person dies in another country, he comes home to his native village in the shape of a tiger, and announces his arrival through a dream to the principal member of the family. Soon after the announcement, a new tiger appears in the neighbourhood. There are characteristic marks on the tiger answering to the marks on the person when alive as a man. If the person had a deformed leg, the new tiger also has a deformed leg. If the person was bald-headed, the tiger also is bald-headed. He is also distinguishable as the personification of such and such a member of the family by peculiar gait and bearing or general build which are those of the dead person. These tigers understand and respond when called by their human names. I cannot illustrate this better than by a personal story. One night, many years ago, my grand-mother was troubled by a herd of buffaloes breaking again and again into her poorly-fenced compound where vegetables and young fruit-trees were sprouting. The moon was overcast, and the night was cool and calm. Repeatedly the old lady