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as a diviner) is identical in form with the dongéng of Aki Bolong just mentioned, which is current among other Sundanese in two parts, viz. Si Kabayan nujum and Si Kabayan naruhkeun samangka.
The Achehnese have many versions of this haba which differ widely from one another in details.
Si Meuseukin's wedding.The haba Si Meuseukin meukawén (Si Meuseukin's wedding) is a disgusting tale, though only moderately so if measured by the standard of the Sundanese Kabayan stories. In the Sundanese I know of three duplicates of this unsavoury tale; in one of these Kabayan's internal troubles are caused by apěm-dough, in another by dage[1] and in the third by peuteuy.[2] The Achehnese Si Meuseukin's colic on the other hand results from the eating of nangka (a kind of jack-fruit, bòh panaïh in Achehnese).
Haba Paʾ Pandé.In the haba Paʾ Pandé there are strung together a number of stories the counterparts of which form separate narratives among the Sundanese.
In the Achehnese version Paʾ Pandé (= Si Meuseukin) after receiving an exhortation to diligence which he duly misunderstands, goes forth to catch blind deut-fish; in the Sundanese dongèng Si Kabayan jeung nyaina ("Si Kabayan and his mother in-law") he fishes with a hoop-net for a blind paray.
When sent to seek a teungku,[3] Paʾ Pandé through misconception of the order comes home first with a ram, and then with a bird of the kind called kuëʾ; similar mistakes form the motif in the Sundanese Si Kabayan boga ewe anyar and Si Kabayan dek kawin ("Si K's early married life" and "Si K. goes to get him a wife").
Paʾ Pandé steals into a sack in which his wife had stowed her household goods and food; similarly the Sundanese Eulenspiegel deceives his grandmother in Si K. ngala daun kachang ("Si K. plucking bean leaves") and his grandfather in Si K. ngala onjuk ("Si K. gathering arèn-fibres"). Other points of resemblance are not wanting, but are less obvious than the above.
Besides the Sundanese Kabayan-tales, we may also compare the Si Meuseukin and Paʾ Pandé with the Malay stories of Pak Bělalang and
- ↑ Dage is eaten as an adjunct to rice. It consists in fruits of a certain kind which secrete oil when partially decayed; after being kept a sufficient time they are cooked and eaten with the rice as a relish.
- ↑ Peuteuy (Anagyris L. = Mal. pětei) is a bean with an offensive odour, also used as a relish.
- ↑ See vol. I, p. 71.
