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Lebai Malang (published by A. F. von Dewall in "Bunga rampai" vol. IV. Batavia 1894).
We must however always remember that the name Si Meuseukin has not acquired so specialized a meaning as that of Si Kabayan. This last is always used by the Sundanese to designate their Eulenspiegel. In the Achehnese, however, Si Meuseukin or the "Poor Devil" may be the hero of other tales as well as the Eulenspiegel ones.
Story of the bayan-prince.In the somewhat prolix Haba Raja Bayeuën[1] ("Story of the bayan-prince") Si Meuseukin plays a part which again reminds us to some extent of Si Kabayan, but many of his adventures are of a similar sort to those of Indra Bangsawan and Banta Amat, with whom we shall presently make further acquaintance as heroes of fiction. Si Meuseukin's finally becoming the monarch of a great kingdom places this tale entirely outside the sphere of Eulenspiegel stories.
Si Meuseukin wronged.The same is true of another Haba Si Meuseukin in which the hero is continually being wronged and cheated by his elder brother, but eventually becomes the happy possessor of two princesses and a kingdom. This story also shows features which recall Indra Bangsawan; like the latter, for instance, Si Meuseukin serves a princess for some time in the guise of a shepherd.
The cloven stone.To conclude our brief review of the Achehnese haba's, we shall mention but one more, the Haba ureuëng lob lam batu[2] blaïh batèë meutangkōb ("story of one who hid herself in a cleft of a stone, a stone which closed together"). This is the marvellous history of two boys, Amat and Muhamat, whose mother had an intrigue with a snake in the jungle and cradled in her house her lover's soul, enclosed in a cucumber. Many varieties of this tale are current in the Gayō and Alas countries.
Most of the literary productions of the Achehnese which we are now about to describe, are in writing, and almost all are composed in verse, We must therefore pause a moment to consider the Achehnese prosody.
Achehnese metrical system.The Achehnese have properly speaking only one metre. This is called sanjaʾ,[3] and consists of verses each of which contains eight feet, or
- ↑ Bayan is the talking bird which so often appears in Malay hikayats; the Achehnese identify it with their tiōng i. e. the mina.
- ↑ We should expect to find here batèë, which occurs two words further on, but in this one instance the Malay pronunciation is followed.
- ↑ The same word as the Malay sajaʾ, derived from the Arabic sajʿ, which means rhyming prose.
