Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/166

 Saréh, and was born at the same instant as Aminōlah, the son of the wazir of that country.

In his father's palace was a portrait of the celestial princess Badiʾōy Jami of the land of Iram. The prince was so smitten with its charms that he could not rest till he had found the original. This he succeeds in doing after a long journey throughout the world, on which he is attended by Aminōlah, and after fierce conflicts with all manner of fabled monsters, such as geureudas, nagas, milōns and other spirits of the forest, which threaten his life. Occasionally too he meets with kindness, as in the case of Hanuman, who introduces him to the king of the apes, and of the princess Nurōy Asikin who slightly resembles the portrait, yet is not she for whom he seeks. She helps Sangsaréh on his way and afterwards becomes the wife of his follower Aminōlah.

Even after Sangsaréh has for the moment attained his object and his celestial princess has come down to him in Silan (Ceylon) sundry new difficulties arise, and it is only by the help of her father, Saʾit Bimaran Indra, that he succeeds in subduing the hostile milōns once for all.

In the end the two brave wayfarers are happily wedded and return to Meusé, where Sangsaréh now mounts the throne of his forefathers under the name of Sulutan Alam Chahya Nurōlah.

Chintabuhan (XXX).

Chintabuhan is the Malay Kén Tambuhan or Tabuhan; the Achehnese romance corresponds in the main with Klinkert's edition of the Malay poem of that name.

In the Achehnese hikayat the princess's country is called Tanjōng Puri and she is not borne away to the forest by supernatural force as in the Malay tale, but carried off by Radén Meuntròë's own father who makes war on her sire for refusing to pay him tribute.

The Achehnese composer has also given to the whole a slightly Mohammadan tinge. The diwas, it is true, play a weighty part and work all manner of marvels, but not till Allah has expressly charged them so to do; and people in distress invoke the aid, not of the all-administering diwas, but of the almighty Creator.