The Clouded Leopard and the Nose Flute ( Harimau om Suling)

The largest wild cat in Borneo is the famous Clouded Leopard. Known as harimau by the Sukang tribe that lives down the Kinabatangan River, famously known as mondou by the Kadazan dusun of Penampang and Tengara tribes and tananansat by the Tobilung tribe. It's length can be from one and a half metres long and has markings that are cloud-like on its body. Being a very shy animal, it hunts mainly during the night and stays in the forest canopy.

Long ago when the world is still young, it is said that the harimau was a very ferocious animal and they eat human beings even. One evening, a villager played a suling (flute)  in the Kinabatangan River. His suling was unique. It is pointed at the end and is played by blowing the suling holes by a nostril while blocking the others with a wad of tobacco. 

While this young man was playing his suling, the hungry ferocious harimau crept up to the end of the forest to see what was making such noise. It inched forward and when it noticed that the man didn't noticed, it moved faster until it was quite close to the man before encircling him as it licked its lips with saliva dripping to the ground.

The man, unperturbed, continued to play his suling and ignored the animal completely. As the animal suddenly pounce to strike the man with its paw, the man poked the pointed end of the suling into its paw and pierced it. 

The harimau howled fearsomely and tried to get rid of the suling that was pierced in its paws but fail. At last, it begged the man to remove the suling from its paw as it felt too much pain. The harimau said " I promise that I and my descendants will not eat you or your descendents as long as you or they are playing the suling."

Then, the man thought about it and immediately pulled the suling out of its paws. Since then, Clouded Leopards stay away from villages whenever they hear the sound of the suling. In fact, they lived as far from human habitation as possible and are hardly ever seen nowadays.

Narrated by KK Jabil bin Bahiri
Source: Animal Tales of Sabah, P.S. Shim