208 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums. [Vol. VII, 



putting them and his blow-pipe down against the tree, went to 

 sleep. 



He slept on and on, until the fruit of the tree was ripe, and 

 at last a single fruit fell on his chest and awoke him with a 

 start. So seeing that the fruit had ripened, he climbed 

 up into the tree and ate a little of it. Then he called aloud, 

 saying, " If there is anyone in this country let him come and 

 eat fruit." But nobody answered him. He ate some more 

 fruit, and again called out as before, and this time he heard a 

 voice answering him from the direction of the going down of 

 the sun, " Where are you, grandchild ?" " Here I am, grand- 

 father," said he. Thus they kept on calling and answering 

 one another until the new-comer was close at hand. Then 

 Bonsu saw that the stranger was an old man with red and 

 deeply sunken eyes. 



Now the old man began to eat the fruit, swallowing it 

 branches, leaves and all ; and when he had satisfied his hunger 

 he said to the youth, " Your grandfather wishes to relieve 

 himself." Then Bonsu replied, " If grandfather wishes to 

 relieve himself, let him go far away down-stream." So the 

 old man started off, and after a while he called out, " Where 

 shall I relieve myself?" and Bonsu answered, "Far away 

 down-stream." In a little while he called again, asking the 

 same question, and Bonsu answered him as before; for he 

 was frightened that the old man would eat him, having seen 

 how he had swallowed the fruit, branches, leaves and all. 

 Thus they went on calling and answering until neither could 

 hear the other. 



Then Bonsu came down from the tree and ran away till 

 he saw a plain by the edge of the sea, where a pinang dara 1 

 and a biiah-plant 2 were growing side by side near the shore. 

 When he reached them he called to him wild pigs, wood- 

 peckers, and porcupines, and thev came. So he told them 

 that, if the old man, the Red-Eyed Spirit, came to the place 

 and (limbed up into the 6t'ra/z-plant to follow him, they were 

 to wait until it had grown up to the sky, and were then to cut 

 it down. This thev promised to do. Then Bonsu climbed 

 into the piuaug-\ree and sang, 



" Tinggi, tinggi batang pinang \ 



Tinggi rendu h puyoh Melaka ' 



Aku takut H until Meruit Mata ! "3 



and the pinang-tree immediately grew up into the clouds 

 carrying him with it. 



■ A betel-nut palm which has not yet born fruit. 



2 A kind of aroid ? 



I A Malay verse (pantun) 



High, High is the pinang trunk! 

 Tall and stumpy are the quails of Malacca 

 I'm frightened of the Red-Eyed Spirit ' 



