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by a geureuda (griffin) with the exception of a princess who has escaped by hiding in a drum, and her eight maids of honour who have concealed themselves in a box. He slays the geureuda and weds the princess[1].
Indra Bangsawan meets in the forest a well disposed raʾsasa (giant) who tells him of princess Sangirah daughter of king Gumbiran. A monster called Buraʾsa with seven eyes and noses demands her, and her father sees no way of avoiding the difficulty other than to propose to her suitors (nine princes up till then) as the condition for aspiring to her hand, that they should bring him Beuraʾsa's eyes and noses.
The raʾsasa gives Indra Bangsawan a charm which enables him to change to any shape he pleases; whereupon he makes himself into a little forest mannikin with a mangy skin, and goes to offer his services to Raja Gumbiran[2].
The king gives the little fellow as a plaything to his daughter. He receives the name of Si Uneun[3] and the princess gives him a pair of goats to look after. Soon, in spite of his ludicrous exterior he wins her favour and receives from her the new name of Si Gamba (Gambar). She tells him her story, and how it has been revealed to her from books that one Indra Bangsawan is destined to be her deliverer.
The princess gets a disease of the eyes, which the physicians declare can only be cured by the application of tigress's milk. Indra Bangsawan procures this from his raʾsasa. The nine princes also go in quest of this milk, and Indra Bangsawan, in his true form, deceives them by giving them goat's-milk in return for which they are obliged to brand themselves as his slaves.[4]
Maimed by the branding the nine return to the palace with their goat's milk and are there put to shame by Si Gamba, whose tigress's milk works the cure.
- ↑ These towns devastated by geureudas appear in many hikayats; see for example the Hikayat Malém Diwa p. 127 above.
- ↑ We are reminded of the story of Banyakchatra prince of Pajajaran, who gained admission to the presence of the princess Chiptarasa, with whom he was in love, in the form of an ape and under the name of Lutung Kěsarung. This story appears e. g. in Babad Pasir, translated by J. Knebel, Batavia 1898, pp 61 et seq. [Lutung or lutong is the name of a large black monkey common in Malaya. Translator.]
- ↑ This form is derived from the more characteristic Malay name Si Utan. Uneun means "to the right".
- ↑ In the story of Banta Ali Peureudan (XXV) we find a like occurrence, while, as we noted in connection with that story, the incident of branding recurs in Indian children's tales.
