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Dua. The market lies up-stream, the gampōng Jeumpét down stream.—I send flowers to master sadati. Bunòt-trees in rows, a straight unindented coast, a lofty mountain with a holy tomb. There is little paper left, the ink fails; the land is at war, and my heart is perturbed[1].
During the succeeding part of the performance the daléms set the tune from time to time and chime in with their refrain, but most of these tunes, with the exception of that employed for the introduction, are lagèë bagaïh, or quick time, not slow intonations.
Continuation of the sadati's recitation.The sadati proceeds. At Chòt Sinibōng on the shore of Peulari, there is the gampōng of the mother of Meureundam Diwi. Alas! this poor little girl shut up in the drum[2], the mother of the child is dead, devoured by the geureuda-bird. Teungku Malém (i.e. Malém Diwa) climbs up into the palace and fetches the princess down from the garret.
Elder brothers, I have here a (question) in grammar, wherein I was instructed at Klibeuët at the home of Teungku Muda. I first studied the book of inflections; I began with the fourteen forms of inflection (i. e. the fourteen forms which in every tense of the verb serve to distinguish person, number and gender). What are the pronouns which appertain to the perfect tense of the verb? Tell me quickly, oh sadati (of the opposite side).
The kisah of the sidati.The above will give the reader some notion of the sort of fragmentary songs with which the sadati commences his performance. These continue for a time till a new item of the programme, the kisahs of the sadati, is reached.
Most of these kisahs consist in dialogues between the sadati and his daléms, but even where a continuous tale is recounted, the daléms take turns with their sadati in his recital.
- ↑ Here the sadati repeats the complaint with which many Achehnese authors or copyists preface their works.
- ↑ Here the sadati recalls the episode, in the well-known Hikayat Malém Diwa, of the town which was entirely laid waste by the geureuda, the only person saved being the beautiful princess Meureundam Diwi, who was concealed by her father in a drum. See pp. 127, 146 above.
