Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/155

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taupi, daughter of the celestial king Raja Din, and afterwards marries her. For her sake also he is obliged to wage war with a disappointed lover, the prince Saʾti Indra Suara. He slays him and takes possession of his country.

The son of Saʾti Indra Suara makes war upon Malém Diwandaʾ to avenge his father, but he too loses his life.

Santan Meuteupi dies of a wound inflicted by an arrow of Brahma shot against her by the son of Saʾti Indra Suara in his eagerness for vengeance. The description of her death is a most favourite passage, and its recital draws tears from many an Achehnese audience. As she dies she advises Malém Diwandaʾ to return to the world below and warns him of a number of dangers which threaten him on the journey.

With the help of a flying garment and a malakat or magic stone given him by the dying princess, he overcomes all difficulties. He assists a raja of Mohammedan jéns of the sea to conquer his infidel kindred, marries the daughter of this prince (who appears to be a vassal of Shahkubat[1]) and begets by her a son, Indra Peukasa, who reigns in his grandfather's stead.

Malém Diwandaʾ returns to his son and brings about a marriage between him and the princess Julusōy Asikin, daughter of Abdōy Mòʾmin. But his old enemy Raja Sara had already sought this lady's hand in vain for his son, and now casts about for some means of disturbing Sidi's wedded happiness.

After the honeymoon, Banta Sidi went on a journey as a merchant and arrived in due time at an island ruled by the giant Jén Indra Diu Keureuma, a man-eater having the shape of a horse. Ibu Nahya, the wife of this giant, saved the life of Sidi by a stratagem, and caused Djén Indra to adopt him as his child. This friendship was of great service to Sidi in his struggle with Banta Saʾti, the son of Raja Sara, who had in the meantime succeeded in entering his palace in the guise of a dancing girl, had poisoned his parents-in-law and was now living in adulterous intercourse with Julusōy Asikin. Here follows a tedious description of the war waged by Banta Sidi with the help of his adopted father after he has been told in a dream of his wife's treachery.

In the end he gains the day and resolves to put his faithless spouse to death, just as his father did before with Siti Chahya. Diu Keureuma,


  1. See below N°. XXVII.