On one occasion another chief resolutely refused to proceed on a
journey through the jungle when a mouse-deer, PLANDOK, crossed his
path; he will not eat this deer at any time.[139]
The people of Miri, who also are Mohammedan Malanaus, claim to be
related to the large deer, CERVUS EQUINUS, and some of them to the
muntjac deer also. Now, these people live in a country in which deer
of all kinds abound, and they always make a clearing in the jungle
around a tomb. On such a clearing grass grows up rapidly, and so the
spot becomes attractive to deer as a grazing ground; and it seems not
improbable that it is through frequently seeing deer about the tombs
that the people have come to entertain the belief that their dead
relatives become deer, or that they are in some other way closely
related to the deer.
The Bakongs, another group of Malanaus, hold a similar belief
with regard to the bear-cat (ARTICTIS) and the various species of
PARADOXURUS; in this case the origin of the belief is admitted by
them to be the fact that, on going to their graveyards, they often
see one of these beasts coming out of a tomb. These tombs are roughly
constructed wooden coffins raised a few feet only from the ground,
and it is probable that these carnivores make their way into them,
in the first place, to devour the corpse, and that they make use of
them as lairs.
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