Old Town Snake-King
The Hakka people used to label lazy bums who tried to evade work or their duty at all cost as “sa-wong”[蛇王,Snake-King] whereas in other communities the title “Snake-King” was a recognition bestowed on an expert snake catcher, especially if he could catch poisonous king cobras.

Recently I was shocked to hear from a good friend of mine, Mr.Henderson Tan, who is my ‘online encyclopedia’ regarding the history of my Old Town, Nibong Tebal. I was told that the ancestors of the King Cobras in the vicinity of my town were specially imported from India by the local British estate managers more than fifty years ago to hunt for rats at oil palm estates. They were thought to be effective pest control in the estates.
If what my friend had told me is true, I am rather curious as well as wonder whether the local species of cobra would ever ask the Indian species of cobra to “Pooh-lah! Hang balik India!” whenever they meet each other to argue over the matter of “cobra immigrants” or “pendatang Ular Tedung” in Malay. The Old Town of Nibong Tebal was surrounded by rubber estates, where some of them were later converted into oil palm estates. These estates were naturally infested with snakes, so these estates gave rise to a new occupation, snake catching ‘specialists’.These expert catchers would earn the tittle of ‘Snake Kings’. In the sixties and early seventies of the last century, Snake Kings of all races were found in abundance everywhere in Peninsular Malaysia. Newspapers at that time were never short of news of one snake king challenging another to see who would emerge as the ‘ultimate king of the kings’.

Hong Lim was our Old Town Snake King during that period. He was a resident of Old Market Road, Nibong Tebal. He caught snakes for his clients’ consumption. He would also sell the skin to be used as leather for making shoes, handbags, belts or outfits. He even made ointment with his own concoction to cure snake bites and skin diseases.

Believe it or not, the raw blood of cobra mixed with a liquor was served to men as a tonic drink. It claimed to be an aphrodisiac similar to Viagra. The flesh of poisonous snakes were kept in bottles filled with liquor for a period of time before it was used as a herbal tonic to cure rheumatism. I learned from another friend in Bukit Mertajam that an elderly lady who habitually ate a slice of raw gall bladder of a snake to preserve her youthful complexion. For Hong Lim,he would go out in the evenings with his assistant from one town to another with a police permit to set up a roadside stall to promote his home-made ointment and herbal tonic of liquor made of snakes. As if to attest to potency of his homemade brew, he displayed it along with live snakes. Being a devoted Buddhist ,his mother was very much against Hong Lim’s job of catching and killing snakes as a livelihood. Her advice “fell into deaf ears” as Hong Lim had had no other means to earn better money than catching snakes.

One evening the residence of the District Officer of Parit Buntar by the River Krian was disturbed by the presence of a cobra measuring twelve to fifteen foot long. All the occupants in the house were frightened and screaming hysterically ‘like fans at a Michael Jackson’s concert’. The District Officer, Mr. Abraham Lingkun, quickly summoned for a Police Inspector to catch the snake. The inspector duly arrived but declined to follow orders. He explained that he was trained like any other Police officers to maintain law and order, and definately not “to catch snakes!”

As luck would have it Hong Lim was busy selling his products near the bus station of Parit Buntar. The District Officer quickly ordered his driver to fetch Hong Lim to catch the cobra. Hong Lim, with the help of some others, wrestled with the snake for half an hour or so before they finally captured the beast.

The District Officer was very pleased and thankful to Hong Lim,and instantly he wrote him a letter of appreciation. Whether the District Officer rewarded Hong Lim monetarily, it was still as good as every body's guess.

However, Hong Lim was proud to possess this precious letter. He framed it and used it to promote his business. He would place it in a prominent place so that even a casual onlooker would not miss it. To a certain extent it did help to boost his sales. For all its worth the letter did considerably ward off harassment from the corrupt police officers (“mata-mata” for “duit kopi”).

As a Chinese adage states, “No one can be well and healthy for over a thousand days.”[人无千日好]. A minor mishap did happen to him while he was doing his business in Alor Setar. He was invited to catch a pair of king cobras in a rice mill. Although he was successful in his mission, one of his fingers was bitten by one of the beasts. He immediately cut off the poison-infected finger and asked his assistant to take him to the General Hospital for treatment.

A newspaper reporter from the Penang based English daily,The Straits Echo, came to know about it and published the news on the following day mentioning that “A renowned Snake King from the Old Town was bitten by a cobra but his own ointment did not help and he had to seek treatment at the General Hospital in Alor Setar.”

Hong Lim furious after reading the report. He went straight to Penang to see a famous lawyer, Mr. KS Lim, for legal advice whether he should sue the reporter for defamation.

Before the lawyer answered his question, Hong Lim was asked to produce a fifty-dollar note on the table. After keeping the note in the drawer, the lawyer answered briefly, “Sue? Of course, you can! But then, you wouldn’t be compensated much even if you won the case as the reporter didn’t mention your name.”

With the reply given, Hong Lim took heed of the hint from the lawyer and he did not pursue the matter any further. He went home ‘like a defeated dog with its tail tucked between its legs’. Nevertheless,he vowed he would try to catch more snakes within the shortest period to ‘redeem’ the fee that he had paid to the lawyer.