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 were seen by Tŭngku Ûteh, the Sultan's only daughter by a royal mother, to whose household the jâmah-jâmah-an belonged. There was a saying current at the court, that Tungku Ûteh resembled a pôlong—a familiar spirit—not physically, for she was fairly well favoured, but in her capacity to devour and ruin. Her father guarded her jealously, for she had been recently married to the ruler of a neighbouring state, and his honour was involved; but public report said that her ingenuity was more than a match for his vigilencevigilance [sic], and from time to time some prominent person in the community would precipitately fly the country, and presently the whisper would spread that he had been added to the tale of the prince victims. Such a disappearance had very recently taken place, wherefore, for the moment, her affections were disengaged, and so it chanced that she looked with the eyes of desire at the young and handsome Saiyid.

In the East, love affairs develop quickly; and that very day Âwang Îtam again saw Îang Mûnah—the girl whom he had loved so long and so hopelessly—and by the flash of an eyelid was apprized that she had that to tell him which it concerned him to hear. When two people are set upon securing a secret interview, many difficulties may be overcome; and that evening Âwang whispered to Tûan Bângau that "the moon was about to fall into his lap."

The Saiyid laughed.

"I dreamed not long since," he said, "that bitten by a very venomous snake," and Âwang laughed too, for he knew that his friend was ripe for