Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/144

 him that his mother is soon about to be forced to marry the Raja Muda. Malém Diwa and Ahmat now make war upon Raja Din and his son the Raja Muda, with the result that Putròë Bungsu is shortly re-united with her lawful consort. The joy of the pair is however once more disturbed by a dream. It is now the Putròë Alōïh that is in danger. The king of China has waged a successful war against Nata and carried off the beautiful lady in a crystal chest.

Malém Diwa descends on the buraʾ to the sublunary world; he alights at Pasè (vulg. Pasei), whence he traverses various places on the East Coast of Acheh and finally arrives at Lhōʾ Sinibōng the domain of Raja Angkasa. The whole kingdom has been laid waste and its inhabitants devoured by the geureuda (= garuda ); the beautiful princess Meureundam Diwi alone, hidden in a beam of timber by her unhappy father, awaited the coming of her deliverer. As a matter of course Malém Diwa slays the geureuda and weds the princess.

Another vision, warning him of impending danger, causes Malém Diwa to determine on fortifying his abode in this place. Sure enough the Raja Jawa soon comes to assail his third experience of wedded bliss. By magic arts he succeeds in rendering Malém Diwa as helpless as an inanimate corpse, after which he carries off the princess in a crystal chest. Meureundam Diwi, however, has instructed a helpful bird (bayeuën) to rouse Malém Diwa after her departure by fomentations of rose-water, and then to fly both to Nata and Dalikha's country, and to bear to the latter and to the Putròë Bungsu news of what has occurred.

Restored to life once more, Malém Diwa sails for China, but during a sea-fight he is thrown into the sea by the Chinese and swallowed by a whale.

This monster dies at sea and drifts to Java where he is cast on shore. The carrion attracts the notice of one Malé Kaya, a relative of the king of Java, who is walking on the sea-shore with his childless wife. In the whale's carcase they find Malém Diwa, who has assumed the form of a little boy, adopt him joyfully as their child and give him the name of Malém Muda.

When Malém Muda had grown up, the Raja Muda wished to provide