Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/257

Rh turning to me with a serious expression of face, said,

"There is a charita" (a tale or legend) "about the name of this place; would you like to hear it, sir?"

"Oh certainly," we both replied, glad of something of the kind to while away the time on this tedious journey.

"Well, sir," began Drahman, "there was a little boy whose name was Aruman, who when quite a child had the misfortune to lose a good kind mother, whose place in their home his father soon filled up by marrying a woman called Ma Qualoan. They had not been married long before Aruman complained bitterly to his father of his stepmother's cruelty. The father expostulated with Ma Qualoan, who so fully satisfied him of the justice of her actions, that on the little boy's making a second appeal to his fathers feelings, informing him that he had not even had enough to