The wily Malay mouse deer

By Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia, The British Library Asian and African studies blog

Many cultures celebrate an animal who, while not the largest or strongest, outwits all around him. In Europe this is Reynard the fox; in the Malay world of Southeast Asia it is Sang Kancil the mouse deer (pelanduk). Malay folklore is full of accounts of how the mouse deer gets the better of the other animals by his intellect and trickery. But in addition to oral tales and childens’ stories there is also a written epic in Malay, the Hikayat Pelanduk Jenaka or ‘Tale of the Wily Mouse deer’, probably dating from the 15th or 16th century, which is a highly sophisticated literary composition. (Read more…)

Sumatran mouse deer. Drawing by a Chinese artist in Bengkulu, between 1784 and 1808, reproduced in William Marsden, A history of Sumatra, 3rd edition (London, 1811). British Library, NHD 1/8. Source: The wily Malay mouse deer – Asian and African studies blog