Note 74 — Chapter V · Magic Rites connected with the Several Departments of Nature

The story of the “pangolin” is also told in Selangor with additional details. Thus it is said that the “Jawi-jawi” tree (a kind of banyan) is always avoided by elephants because it was once licked by the armadillo. The latter, after licking it, went his way, and “the elephant coming up was greatly taken aback by the offensive odour, and swore that he would never go near the tree again. He kept his oath, and his example has been followed by his descendants, so that to this day the ‘Jawi-jawi’ is the one tree in the forest which the elephant is afraid to approach.”74