A tale of Pa’ Kadok
J.H. Loch records a Perak River folk tale concerning Pa’ Kadok, a native of Siak in Deli who lived at Lambor during the reign of Sultan Muzaffar Shah I, and documents the material and ritual legacy the story left among the people of Lambor. (p. 180)
Summary
The tale recounts how Pa’ Kadok, having lost all his possessions and family to a Perak Raja at a cockfight (a reference to the Cherita Jenaka), discovered lumps of gold inside a large Ikan Tapah (catfish) washed up on the riverbank at Lambor. After finding a tuai (padi-cutting knife) in his roof to open the fish, he returned the still-living creature to the river and swore that neither he nor his descendants would ever eat Ikan Tapah. He then fled to Deli to avoid the Sultan’s attention, had the gold made into ornaments, and upon returning to Lambor used the proceeds to recover his family and property from the Raja. (pp. 180–181)
Loch notes that the tale’s legacy persists: the people of Lambor still refuse to eat Ikan Tapah, believing that doing so causes a painful rash curable only by bathing in water in which the gold ornaments have been immersed. He identifies two surviving pieces of jewelry in the possession of Pa’ Kadok’s descendants—an agok (a heavy necklace with large square ornaments) and a changai merah (a delicate artificial fingernail used in marriage ceremonies)—both apparently of solid gold. He also records that at Malim Nawar near Kampar he was shown an earthenware dish said to have been recovered from the same fish’s stomach and to possess similar remedial properties. (p. 181)