Journal of the Federated Malay States museums - Sabrizain.org

206 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums. [Vol \ II.
situated. So he said to himself, " Perhaps that is where my
brother went." Then he climbed down from the tree, and,
heaping together the bodies of the beasts that he had shot, he
left them there with his blow -pipe and chopper and went in
the direction of the sounds. When he got to the patch of
sugar-cane the hen cackled loudly (and, as before, the i i pli
|
of the house became cockroaches and hid themselves), lie.
too, on coming to the open spai e in front of the hi -use called
out, " Hoi, people ! Hoi,
sister " ! but nobody answered him.
So he went up into the house and found no one there, but
food and sireh set out ready. He waited for some time, but as
nobody came, and he felt hungry, at last he said, " If this is
the spirits' food it will be savourless, but if for human beings
it will be salt." Then he tasted the food, and finding it salt,
ate his fill. Next he drank water and after this he took sireh
and chewed it. The first quid that he chewed tasted sweet,
the second rich, the third intoxicating and the fourth sweet.
And he also felt dizzy and went to sleep. Upon this the ce>ckroaches
came out and ate him up ; and they hid his bones
under a big cauldron, where they had also hidden those of his
brother.
Now when he did not come home either, the third brother
took up the search, and met with the same fate, as did also the
fourth, fifth and six.
At last the youngest brother. Bonsu Api, said to himself,
" How is it that my brothers do not come home ?"
That night his grandfather came to him in a dream, and
he asked him how it was that his brothers had not relumed,
and where they had gone to.
The grandfather replied that they had not come home
because they had been killed by the Cockroach Demons
(RengkasP Lipas).
"What am I to do about them," said Bonsu Api, " and
how am I to kill them ?" " You must give chendnai 2 to them,"
said his grandfather.
Then Bonsu Api awoke and. remembering his dream, he
thought that he also would follow his brother.-. So he told his
father and mother' of his desire and, having made his preparations,
on the next morning he set out.
He. too, fame to the hut where his brothers had slept and
found the fruit-tree, where they had left their blow pipes and
quivers; and the heap of rotting game under the tree was as big
as a large ant's-nest, and the quivers and blow-pipes, which
had been left there by thi brothers who had preceded him. were
already partly destroyed b) "whiti ant."
Then he thought "t what his grandfather had said to him
in his dream. So he also climbed up into the tiee and shot the
i Rengkasi, the Malay G i
2 A herb from which the Sakai m