Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/162

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My attention has been drawn by Dr. Brandes to the fact that some of the special features of this story reappear in popular tales of Hindustan. In the story of Prince Ape we find a beautiful prince, who originally appears as an ape; and in that of the Boy with a moon on his forehead and a star on his chin, we meet with six brethren-in-law who are constrained to let themselves be branded in the forest by the lover of one of the seven princesses. Both these appear in the collection of Maive Stokes^[1].

A similar story of branding is to be met with in the Hikayat Indra Bangsawan (XXVI) and another in the Contes Kabyles of A. Mouliéras, "les Fourberies de Si Jehʾa", p. 152 et seq. (N° L).

Hikayat Indra Bangsawan.Indra Bangsawan (XXVI).

This story is a fairly faithful reproduction of the Malay one of the same name, of which there are three copies at Batavia^[2] and one at Berlin^[3]. In respect both of its style and subject it may be classed among the more entertaining kind of native fiction.

Indra Bungsu king of Chahrilah after praying and waiting for issue for years, at last begets twin sons. The first born Chahpari comes into the world with an arrow, the second, Indra Bangsawan, with a sword. The question is, which of the two is to be the Crown Prince? The king dreams of a magic musical instrument (bulōh meurindu) and decides that whichever of the two procures him this, shall succeed him on the throne^[4].

The brothers go on their travels together, but are soon separated by a storm.

Chahpari comes to a city whose inhabitants have all been eaten up

↑ See pp. 39 vv. and 124 vv. of the Dutch translation which was published at the Hague in 1881 under the name of Indische Sprookjes by the Brothers van Cleef. Compare also Spitta Bey's Contes arabes modernes, Leiden, 1883, p. 153 et seq. N°. XII, Histoire du prince et de son cheval.
↑ Nos 160–162 of the collection of Von de Wall; but in Van den Bergs Verslag (p. 30) there is no account of their contents. Van den Berg himself appears not to have examined the manuscripts; otherwise how could it have escaped his notice that folios 39–45 of n° 161 contain the Hikayat Raja Jumjum? A lithographed edition of the Malay version of Indra Bangsawan was published in the month of Muharram A, H. 1310 by Haji Muhamad Tayib at Singapore.
↑ Königl Bibliothek, Collection Schumann. V, 21.
↑ These circumstances reappear to some extent in the Malay tale called Indra Kajangan, which appears as n° 57 of the Raffles Collection of the Royal Asiatic Society. See the paper of Dr. H. N. van der Tuuk in Essays relating to Indo-China, Second Series, II, p. 36.

[1] See pp. 39 vv. and 124 vv. of the Dutch translation which was published at the Hague in 1881 under the name of Indische Sprookjes by the Brothers van Cleef. Compare also Spitta Bey's Contes arabes modernes, Leiden, 1883, p. 153 et seq. N°. XII, Histoire du prince et de son cheval.

[2] Nos 160–162 of the collection of Von de Wall; but in Van den Bergs Verslag (p. 30) there is no account of their contents. Van den Berg himself appears not to have examined the manuscripts; otherwise how could it have escaped his notice that folios 39–45 of n° 161 contain the Hikayat Raja Jumjum? A lithographed edition of the Malay version of Indra Bangsawan was published in the month of Muharram A, H. 1310 by Haji Muhamad Tayib at Singapore.

[3] Königl Bibliothek, Collection Schumann. V, 21.

[4] These circumstances reappear to some extent in the Malay tale called Indra Kajangan, which appears as n° 57 of the Raffles Collection of the Royal Asiatic Society. See the paper of Dr. H. N. van der Tuuk in Essays relating to Indo-China, Second Series, II, p. 36.

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