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without opposition under the direction of their Sultan, who builds fortifications of strength sufficient to withstand an attack by land and sea. Meanwhile the naval commander with the larger portion of the fleet keeps watch at sea for the foe who has threatened an attack on Acheh.
The enemy lets them wait a full year, but in the end a hostile fleet of 50000 sail arrives upon the scene. Malém Dagang, acting on Ja Pakèh's skilful choice of a favourable moment, chooses his time and falls furiously on the infidels.
The Sultan of Acheh, when informed how matters stand, remains inactive on shore and is only induced to go on board the Chakra Dōnya after receiving a reproachful message from Ja Pakèh, who threatens to leave him if he refuses to comply with his advice. After conferring with Raja Radén he razes the fortifications to the ground so as not to furnish the enemy with a safe place of refuge, and joins the fleet.
Meantime Malém Dagang has already slain his tens of thousands, and when the king comes on board he omits not to upbraid him for his inactivity with bitter irony, asking him how many foes he has slain yonder on land.
Si Ujut himself has not yet joined the fleet; he is lingering in Guha (see p. 81 above) not from want of courage, but from exaggerated devotion to his five[1] consorts, the chief of whom is the daughter of the king of that place[2]. This favourite wife now upbraids his sloth. She tells him that if he does not play the man, it may come to pass that his fleet will soon be defeated and his five beloved ones torn from his arms, and that he will then, like his brother Radén, be obliged to content himself with a hag as ugly as an iguana.
There words strike home. Ujut flies into a passion and speaks with contempt of the warlike preparations of the Achehnese. At the same time he admits that he is loth to be compelled to fight just then, as the conjuncture (kutika) is favourable to the Achehnese.
Meantime, before Si Ujut takes command of his fleet, Malém Dagang
- ↑ This number seems to have been purposely chosen as being in excess of the maximum of four wives allowed by the creed of Islam, in order the better to emphasize that fact that Ujut was an unbeliever.
- ↑ Here we have another trait characteristic of the Achehnese poet, who magines that the husband follows the wife in other countries as in Acheh. The fact that the same "kafir" was ruler both of Malacca and of Guha he finds it easiest to explain by supposing that the prince of Malacca was the son-in-law of the king of Guha.
