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8 NATURE CHAP.
Pauh Janggi) the following story was related to me
by a Selangor Malay :
"There was once a Selangor man named Haji
Batu, or the Petrified Pilgrim, who got this name
from the fact that the first joints of all the fingers of
one hand had been turned into stone. This happened
in the following manner. In the old days when men
went voyaging in sailing vessels, he determined to
visit Mecca, and accordingly set sail. After sailing
for about two months they drifted out of their course
for some ten or fifteen days, and then came to a part
of the sea where there were floating trunks of trees,
and all manner
together with rice-straw (batangpadi]
of flotsam. Yet again they drifted for seven days,
and upon the seventh night Haji Batu dreamed a
dream. In this dream one who wore the pilgrim's
garb appeared to him, and warned him to carry on
his person a hammer and seven nails, and when he
came to a tree which would be the Pauh Janggi he
was to drive the first of the nails into its stem and cling
thereto. Next day the ship reached the great whirl-
pool which is called the Navel of the Seas, 1
and while
1 The following passage describes
how a magic prince visited the Navel
and dashed him against the sea bottom
with such force that his head was
of the Seas :
"
Presently he arrived at his destinaburied
in the ground, but the little
dragon cared not at all. Then the
'
said : Tell me the truth !
tion the Navel of the Seas (Pusat Raja Naga
taseK). All the monsters of the ocean, from what land hast thou fallen (titek
the whales and monster fishes, and col- deri pada n/gri ninggua mand), and
ossal dragons (naga umbang), and the whose son and offspring art thou ? '
magic dragons (naga sri naga ka-sak- To which the Golden Dragon made
I have no land nor
tian), assembled together to eat and answer, saying, '
devour him, and such a tumult arose country, I have neither father nor
that the Raja Naga, who was superior mother, but I was incarnated from the
'
to all, heard it and came to see. Now hollow part of a bamboo ! When the
when he beheld the Golden Dragon Raja Naga heard this he sent for his
he opened his jaws to their full extent, spectacles (cA/rmzn mata), and by their
and made three attempts to seize and aid he was able to see the real parentage
swallow him, but failed each time. of the Golden Dragon and all con-
At length, however, he caught him, cerning him, and he at once told him