The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

276 HEVJEW AHTJCLES
"Che Yang (Malay guide) wasted no time. She agreed
to come with us to our first objective.- the Naga-haunted mountain
of Gunong Cheni. Cheni is a jungle ridge some forty miles up the
Pahang River on the east coast of Malaya. Until recently, it was
inaccessible and remote, but at the time of writing a road is being
cut through jungle towards the Pahang River at a point directly
opposite the lake which lies at the foot of the mountain. The name
'Cheni' which is given to both lake and mountain is a Thai word
meaning 'gibbon'. (pp. 34-5)
"As we set off once more in our peralw towards the far end
of the Jake my thoughts went back to many theories which bad been
advanced across the years that a city bad once existed beneath the
lake. I had first come upon a reference to it as far back as 1955
in Dr. Linehan's History of Pahang. "It is possible," he wrote, "that
the lake did not always exist in its present form and that it covers
the site of an ancient town." He gave his reasons which made sense
in terms of a strategic focus for transpeninsular waterways and
river routes to sources of gold and tin. An article he published
in 1928 described his visit to the lake and his discovery of a huge
artificial mound to the south of it 'en route' to the River Jeram.
This mound captured my imagination. Across an interval of forty
years, Linehan himself never went back to excavate the moun~ and
no one else had since been there to find it. My own attempt with
a friend in 1956 to discover the mound was a failure. However, the
effect of subsequent broadcasts and my account of the expedition
in a book created widespread interest in Lake Cheni throughout
Malaya, causing many adventurers, expeditions and, more recently,
tourists, to visit the lake.
"One visitor claimed to have seen a monster with eyes 'like
tennis balls of fire'. To another, J. McHugh, who made several
visits to the lake in search of pottery, a Semelai headman had
declared that Nenek, or 'grandfather' as they affectionately called
the Naga, was not, in fact, a python. Indeed, there were two
kinds of Naga. I quote from McHugh:
'One has a head with two bumps on it and the other has a
smaller head like a fowl.' The headman went on to describe its
track in the mud, about ten inches in width, and even the noise it
made, He pointed out where it was thought to live. The place is