Malayan Literature Part 15

The King was highly pleased, although surprised by such a magnificent present. And he said to himself, "Now, what can be the aim of these people giving me all this?" The pretended Arabs returned to their s.h.i.+ps. A few days after, the master of the s.h.i.+p returned to visit the King. This time he brought as a present a chess-board of gold of which the chessmen were of precious stones, which was worth an enormous sum.

"What do you want of me?" again asked the prince. "Speak, that I may satisfy you."

And they replied, "We ask for nothing."

Then they returned to the s.h.i.+p. Some time later, when the favorable monsoon blew for their return homeward, Sidi Ali Ghaiath thought upon his departure. He went to see the King, laden with a present which consisted of two golden ducks, male and female, enriched with precious stones, and in a big golden basin. He filled this golden basin with water, put in the ducks. They began to swim, dive, and pursue each other, a sight at which the King marvelled much.

"I beg of you to tell me," he said, "what you desire of me. By the G.o.d whom I wors.h.i.+p, I swear to fulfil your wishes."

Then Sidi Ali answered: "Lord, if it is the accomplishment of your favor, we beg that you will give us your poultry-keeper."

"It is the King of Pasey that you ask of me. But, very well, I grant him to you."

"It is because he is a Mussulman," said the strangers, "that we ask him of your Majesty."

The King Chehr-en-Naoui delivered therefore the Sultan Melik-ed-Dhahir to Sidi Ali Gaiath-ed-Din, who took him on board the s.h.i.+p, gave him a bath, and then clothed him in royal raiment. The wind blew, they weighed anchor, set sail, and after a certain time arrived at the country of Samoudra. And G.o.d knows the truth. He is our aid and our refuge.

Now we are going to speak of the King Melik-el-Mansour at Samoudra.

This prince said one day to Sidi Ali Asmai-ed-Din:

"I would like to go and see how my brother is getting along."

The minister answered, "Do not go, my lord, for fear of misfortune."

And, indeed, he tried to restrain his master. The prince would listen to nothing, and finally the minister was silent. He ordered the drums to beat, in order to make the announcement, "Sultan Melik-el-Mansour is going to see the country of his brother."

Sidi Ali Asmai-ed-Din was not satisfied. He was an old minister who knew that out of every affair causes of trouble may arise. But it was his duty to obey. The prince started. He made the tour of the city of Pasey, and then entered the palace of the Sultan Melik-ed-Dhahir. There he fell in love with one of the ladies-of-honor of his brother's court, and a quarrel arose between the two brothers on her account. Sultan Melik-ed-Dhahir felt in the bottom of his heart a violent irritation toward his brother.

Now he had a son named Radja Ahmed, very young when his father was captured, but grown up when the prince was restored from the hands of Chehr-en-Naoui. Sidi Ali Ghaiath-ed-Din having withdrawn from affairs, a minister named Parapatih Toulous Toukang Sikari had replaced him in his ministerial functions. One day the King said to the minister:

"What is your opinion concerning the act of Sultan Melik-el-Mansour?"

The minister answered: "We have a means----"

"But," answered the King, "it might involve his death."

"If he dies," replied the minister, "my name shall be no longer Toukang."

"Give a family fete for your son Sultan Ahmed. We will invite Sultan Melik-el-Mansour to the festival."

Sultan Melik-ed-Dhahir gave orders then to decorate the city and made preparations for the fete, and sent to find Sultan Melik-el-Mansour.

This prince was with Sidi Ali Asmai-ed-Din and his officers. They introduced the prince and his minister, but left the officers outside.

When they had entered, Sultan Melik-ed-Dhahir caused them both to be seized and ordered one of his officers to conduct his brother to Mandjang. "As for you," he said to Sidi Ali, "stay here. Do not try to go with your master or I'll cut off your head."

Sidi Ali answered: "Rather let my head be separated from my body than that the servant should be separated from his master."

So the King had his head cut off. The head was thrown into the sea and the body impaled at the entrance to the Bay of Pasey. While they were taking the Sultan Melik-el-Mansour toward the east in a _prabo_, at the moment when they arrived near Djambou Ayer, the pilot saw a human head floating in the water near the rudder. He recognized the head of Sidi Ali. Informed of this event, Sultan Melik-el-Mansour caused the head to be taken from the water. It was indeed that of his minister. Casting his glances toward the land: "Behold," he said, "the Plain of Illusions." And it bears that name, "Padang-Maya," to this day. The prince sent to his brother and demanded the body of Sidi Ali; joined the head with the body, and buried both in the Plain of Illusion. Then he went back to Mandjang.

After the departure of the Sultan Melik-el-Mansour, King Melik-ed- Dhahir had the family festival. The Sultan Melik-el-Mansour had been at Mandjang three years when the Sultan Melik-ed-Dhahir bethought him of his brother.

"Alas," he said, "I was truly too unwise. For a woman my brother dethroned, and his minister is dead."

And the prince repented. He ordered some of his officers to go and find his brother at Mandjang. They therefore brought back Sultan Melik-el- Mansour with the regard due to a king. When they arrived near the Plain of Maya, the prince landed to visit the tomb of Sidi Ali Asmai-ed-Din.

"I salute you, my father," he said. "Stay here, my father. As for me I go away, called by my brother."

From the interior of the tomb Sidi Ali answered: "Where would the prince go? It is better to remain here."

When the prince heard these words, he made his ablutions, said a couple of prayers, then stretched himself upon the tomb and expired. They bore to Sultan Melik-ed-Dhahir the news that his brother was dead, in the Plain of Maya, in the tomb of Sidi Ali Asmai-ed-Din. He started at once, went to the place, and had his brother, Sultan Melik-el-Mansour, buried with the ceremonies of great kings. Then, after returning to Pasey, a prey to grief, he abdicated the throne in favor of his son, Sultan Ahmed.

Some time after this, Sultan Melik-ed-Dhahir fell ill. He gave Sultan Ahmed his last instructions. "O my son," said he, "light of my eyes, treasure of my heart, never neglect the advice of your old servitors.

In every affair take counsel with your ministers. Neglect not the duties of piety to G.o.d, the sovereign Master. Beware of injustice to men."

Sultan Ahmed heard in tears the last words of his father. The prince died, and they buried him near the mosque.

Sultan Ahmed was for many years on the throne and governed with much justice. Now, the author of this story says: "There was at Pasey a servant of G.o.d named Toun Djana Khat.i.te. This man made the voyage to Singapore with two companions. Crossing the square of Singapore he pa.s.sed by the palace of the King and saw the Queen. Near the palace was an areca tree, and while Toun Djana was looking at the Queen the tree split in two. At sight of this, King Sri Maharadja was extremely irritated. 'You see,' he cried, 'the conduct of Toun Djana Khat.i.te. To call the attention of the Queen, he has acted thus. And he ordered him to be killed. So Toun Djana was led to the place of punishment, near a cake-shop, where Toun Djana Khat.i.te received the blow of the poniard; his blood ran on the earth, but his body disappeared and no one could ever tell what became of it. The cake-shop-keeper covered the blood with the cake-cover, and the cake-cover was changed into stone, which is still seen at Singapore. According to a tradition, the body of Toun Djana Khat.i.te was transported to Langkaoui and there buried."

Some time later came the sea-monsters called _toudaks_ and attacked Singapore. They leaped upon the sh.o.r.e, and people who were there died in great numbers, overtaken by these _toudaks_. If they struck a man on the breast, they pierced to his back. If they struck the neck or the loins, they pierced clear through from one side to the other. There were many killed. People ran about crying:

"The _toudaks_ are attacking us!"

"What shall we do?"

"How many dead? We shall all peris.h.!.+"

Padouka Sri Maharadja in great haste mounts the elephant and goes forth, followed by his ministers, his body-guards, and all his officers. Arriving at the seash.o.r.e he sees with horror the work of these monsters, the _toudaks_. Whoever was wounded by them inevitably perished. The number of the victims became larger and larger. The prince ordered the men to make a rampart of their legs, but in their boundings the _toudaks_ succeeded in pa.s.sing this barrier. They came like the rain, and the slaughter was terrible. While this was happening a young boy said:

"Why make thus a rampart of our legs? That is an artifice very much to our hurt. If we should make a rampart of the trunks of banana-trees, would not that be better?"

When Padouka Sri Maharadja heard the words of the child, "He is right,"

he said. And on his orders they hastened to construct a barrier of banana-tree trunks. When the _toudaks_ came bounding along their snouts were buried in the tree-trunks, and the men ran up and killed them.

There perished thus of these _toudaks_ a number beyond computation.

Their bodies formed heaps on the sh.o.r.e, and all the population of Singapore did not suffice to eat them. And the _toudaks_ ceased their leapings. They say, by the force of their boundings the _toudaks_ reached the elephant of the prince and tore the sleeve of his cloak.

About this they made a song:

"The boundings of the _toudaks_ tore The mantle which the Sultan wore, But here they ceased their onset wild, Thanks to the wisdom of a child."

While Padouka Sri Maharadja was returning, the grandees said to him: "Lord, this child, though so young, has much wit. What will it be when he has grown up? You had better get rid of him." That is why they found it just that the King should give the order for him to be killed.

After they had caused this young boy to perish, it seems that the city of Singapore felt the weight of his blood.

Padouka Sri Maharadja reigned some time still and then died. He had as successor his son Padja Is Keuder Chah, who married the daughter of Toun Parapatih Toulous, and by her had a son named Radja Ahmed Timang- timanganga Radja Besar Mouda. This young prince was handsome and well formed, without equal in those days. When he was of age his father married him to the daughter of the King Salamiam, King of Kota- Mahlikie, who was named Kamar-al-Adjaaib, a princess of unrivalled beauty. King Is Keuder Chah had a _bendahari_, or major-domo, named Lang Radjouna Tapa, of the race of ancient inhabitants of Singapore, father of a very beautiful girl in the court of the King. The other court ladies calumniated this young woman, and the King in a rage ordered her to be impaled in the corner of the marketplace.

Lang Radjouna Tapa was extremely wounded by the treatment of his daughter. "If in truth my daughter had offended," said he, "you might have simply had her killed. But why dishonor us thus?" On this he wrote a letter to Java saying, "If the Batara of Madj.a.pahit wishes to attack Singapore let him come at once, for I will give him entrance into the fortifications."

When the Batara of Madj.a.pahit had read this letter he caused to be equipped 300 junks and a great quant.i.ty of other boats. A hundred thousand Javanese embarked, crossed the sea, and attacked Singapore. At the end of several days King Is Keuder commanded his major-domo to carry rice for the rations of the troops. Lang Radjouna Tapa answered, "There is no more, my Lord." For he wished to betray him. At daybreak he opened the gates of the fortifications and the Javanese entered.

Inside the town there was a frantic combat. So many people were killed on each side that blood flowed like water. From this came the marks of blood which are seen to this day in the Plain of Singapore. The natives ceased their struggle and King Is Keuder escaped, descending from Salitar to the Moara coast. By the will of G.o.d, the house of Lang Radjouna Tapa was overturned, the storehouse for rice fell to pieces, and the rice was changed to earth. The _bendahari_ himself and his wife were changed to stone, and these stones are still found in the ditch at Singapore. After this victory the Javanese returned to Madj.a.pahit.

On arriving at Moara, King Is Keuder halted at nightfall. Now there came a mult.i.tude of iguanas, and, when day dawned they saw them gathered in a crowd near the halting-place. They killed them and threw their bodies into the river. But at night, iguanas again came in ma.s.s.

The next morning the Singaporeans killed them, but that night as many more arrived. So that the place became putrid from the mult.i.tude of their bodies. The quarter is still called Biaoak Bousok, or "Putrid Iguanas."