Note 309 — Chapter V · Magic Rites connected with the Several Departments of Nature (continued 2)

“Many Malays refuse to eat the fresh-water fish called ikan belidah,309 on the plea that it was originally a cat. They declare that it squalls like a cat when harpooned, and that its bones are white and fine like a cat’s hairs. Similarly the ikan tumuli is believed to be a human being who has been drowned in the river, and the ikan kalul to be a monkey transformed. Some specially favoured observers have seen monkeys half through the process of metamorphosis—half-monkey and half-fish.”310