Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/145

 him with a wife, but he stoutly declared that he would marry none other than Meureundam Diwi. Hence arose a quarrel that led to war. Dalikha and the princess Bungsu having in the meantime arrived with their fleets, took an active part in the contest. The Raja Jawa was overcome and slain, and Meureundam Diwi set free. A war against China was crowned with the like success and the Putròë Alōïh rescued from her crystal prison. They now all returned to Nata and from thence each went back to his own country. Ahmat became a sub-king of the airy realm and married Janagaru the daughter of the Raja Muda of that kingdom.

A copy of the Menangkabau "Malim Diman" preserved in the library of the Batavian Association, gives an account of the adventures of this hero with Putri Bungsu, which while varying in some details from Malém Diwa, harmonizes with it in its main outline, but is much more prolix. No mention is made of Dalikha or the two other objects of Malém Diwa’s love, and what we are told of Malém Diwa's early life is quite different from the Achehnese hikayat. The Batak story of Malin Deman has only isolated points of resemblance with either of the above.

Of Malém Diwa's immortality and his wanderings in the wilderness of the North and East Coasts of Acheh we have already spoken in our introductory remarks.

[In June 1898 an illiterate man of Gayō origin succeeded in rousing a tumult among the people of the East and North Coasts of Acheh by giving out that he was invulnerable and that he had the power of rendering harmless the weapons of the unbelievers. He was known as Teungku Tapa, but the majority of the people regarded him as Malém Diwa returned to life, or at least as one clothed with Malém Diwa's authority; most of the Achehnese with whom I spoke of him regarded his pretensions as far from preposterous. Teungku Tapa and his followers were defeated by the Dutch troops, after which he disappeared for a time. In 1899, however, he again renewed his activity, this time with a band of followers from the Gayo country. This second effort was suppressed still more promptly than the former. In 1900 Teungku Tapa was slain in the neighbourhood of Piadah].