rat and buffalo

[potetjp]

If you remember, Isidore Dyen once made the very important remark that the
word for rat might have been "promoted" and used for dog in Lukep (e-mail
dated Feb. 1, 2000).
I think I have found another curious case.
In Puyuma (Formosa), the word for rat is _kurabaw_ and the word for water
buffalo is _ siugu_.
(source: CAUQUELIN, Josiane (1991). _Dictionnaire puyuma-français_.
Paris/Jakarta: Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient.)
Puyuma _kurabaw_ "rat" sounds very much like Tagalog _kalabáw_ "water
buffalo", Tausug _ka:baw_, Malay _kerbau_ "do."  and Siamese _kràbyy_ "do."
(HAAS 1955: 221) ("y" in Haas's spelling stands for the IPA symbol [Ø], e.g.
French _noeud_ "knot, node", German _böse_ "bad",  not the IPA symbol [y],
e.g. French _rue_ "street", German _Glück_ "happiness")
Among the Philippine minor languages, the Binukid, Kalagan, Mamanwa,
Sarangani-Manobo, Mansaka and Tausug term for rat is _ambaw_. It is _babaw_
in Samal. These terms have the root *bau in common with Puyuma _kurabaw_.
Could the root for rat have been also "promoted" and used for buffalo?
>>From this point my imagination is running wild. If such is the case there
may have been some magic reason: you take a rat, call it a dog and offer it
to a god - a classical case of sacrifice by substitution. The operation is
even more economical if you can make a rat pass for a buffalo.
What do you think of all that?
Jean-Paul G. POTET. B. P. 46. 92114 CLICHY CEDEX. FRANCE.