Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/146

 Eseukanda Ali or Suganda Ali (XVI).

In times of old Sultan Ali held sway in the kingdom of Chamtalira, by which the Achehnese mean the same that is called Sumatra in the writings of Marco Polo and Ibn Baṭuṭah. In this kingdom was a merchant of great wealth named Didi, who sent forth his son Ali Juhari with ships to trade. This he did first in Pasè, but when the market there declined, his father had a ship fitted out to send on a voyage of enquiry as to where his son might find a fruitful field for his enterprises. The ship's company found out that the best plan was to make the young man a sugarcane planter in Keureutòë (Kěrti). With this in view they purchased land from Ahli, king of Keureutòë and built a sumptuous residence which was called Indra Siluka. When all was ready, Ali Juhari was fetched thither.

Raʾna Jamin, the daughter of the sovereign of Keureutòë had woven a cloth of which all the merchants had till now in vain endeavoured to gain possession, for it might only be purchased by him who should succeed in opening the chest in which it lay. On his arrival in the country Ali Juhari learns of this, and succeeds in opening the chest. He carries off the cloth to Indra Siluka and there hoists it as a flag in the hope that its maker will some day come to him through curiosity as to the meaning of this decoration.

His wish is fulfilled, and in a twinkling Cupid welds together the hearts of both. The princess however tells him that her hand has been promised by her father to Sulutan Sulòyman (Suleiman) of Salbian. She is meanwhile ready to live in a secret union with Ali Juhari and to visit him each day at nightfall.

On three successive evenings she comes to him at an appointed hour; but each time Allah lays on him so deep a sleep that she is fain to depart leaving a letter as token of her faith to the tryst. The unhappy lover on the third night cuts open his finger and rubs red pepper into the wound to drive away slumber; yet he sleeps notwithstanding and cannot be awakened. The third letter is the last he receives; the princess becomes disheartened and discontinues her visits.