His face and appearance like to Pandawa.[1]
They sit crosslegged, holding hands,
The woman to the left, the man to the right.
As if they had descended from heaven;
And at that time
People came and offered them food.[2]
They said prayers to holy men and hajis,
That to all eternity they might be man and wife,
First the woman partook of food,
They chewed the food and spat it out.
They held each other's hands and fed each other with rice.
And when they had in turn fed each other
It was a pleasant sight to see.
The king came before them with tranquillity.
Indra Bangsāwan now fell ill,
And could no longer rise from his bed;
Languid he was to a great degree,
As if a mountain had fallen on him.
The sayings of Sahpri are now to be mentioned.
One night while he and his wife were asleep.
He dreamt that he met his brother on a high mountain.
He [awoke] and exclaimed to the princess
"Alas, my sister, I must take leave of you.
"There is something the matter with my brother,
"For I have just this night dreamed
"From here in which direction is his country."
"If" (said she) "you must really go,
"Take, I pray you, this Bezoar stone.
"No matter how dangerously ill anyone may be
"It can cure him by the help of God."
Then Sahpri received the Bezoar stone,
And forthwith he set out in haste.
And on the way he met an old man.
Sahpri made enquiry saying, "My father,
- ↑ "Pandawa, a name given to the heroes of the Mahabharata, the five sons of Pandu. The three most commonly known are Yudisthira (Malay: Maharaja Dermawangsa); Arjuna (Sang Ranjuna), and Bhima (Sang Bima). Hikayat Pandawa Jaya and Hikayat Pandawa Lima: names of Malay stories borrowed from Mahabharata"—(Wilkinson, Malay Dictionary).
- ↑ The ceremonies here described are those of the Malay marriage rites, an important part of which is that the bride and bridegroom are seated in state on the marriage couch side by side, in the presence of all their friends and relations, and there go through various ceremonies, such as the feeding of each other with rice, and the painting of their foreheads and hands with henna and with a mixture of rice-flour and water, a charm being generally recited at the same time to drive away the evil spirits. See Skeat's Malay Magic, under "Marriage."
