114 SRI RAMA. 



going to bed, but he at once fell into a sound sleep and the 

 old woman jumped up and possessed herself of the skin and 

 burned it. * The smoke which arose from it turned into 

 white cloth, and the ashes which were left were found to be 

 gold. 



The Prince thenceforward appears in the story under the 

 name of Mambang Bongsu. There was, of course, great re- 

 joicing in the two capitals in consequence of his transforma- 

 tion. The TumoDggong was sent off to carry the good news 

 to Sri Rama and his wife, who come at once to Bandar Tahwil 

 to see their son. There was a second wedding, and three 

 months were devoted to festivities. Buffaloes, oxen, goats, 

 ducks and fowls were killed by the hundred thousand, and 

 some idea of the magnitude of the preparations may be formed 

 from the fact that the scrapings of the rice-pots made hillocks, 

 the blood of the slaughtered animals formed a lake, and the- 

 hot water poured away in cooking flowed continuously like a 

 rivulet ! 



Soon after this Raja Shah Kobad abdicated in favour of 

 his son-in-law Mambang Bongsu, who thenceforth reigned 

 as Raja of Bandar Tahwil. 



The only remaining episode is the advent of the Jin with 

 seven heads, who, ignorant of all that had occurred, came with 

 an army to demand the Princess Renek Jin tan in marriage, 

 threatening war in case of refusal. Mambang Bongsu did 

 not wish to injure his old friend, so he made an enormous 

 quantity of paper birds, which, by prayer to the Dewatas, he 

 caused to be rrade instinct with life. These he let loose 

 among the hosts of the Jin with seven heads, and the latter 

 could do nothing, for as fast as one was warded off ten more 

 came. He invoked the help of the monkey-troops by aid 

 of the charm which Kra Kechil had given him on Mount 

 Inggil-ber-inggil when they swore an oath of brotherhood, 



* Compare this with the incident of the burning of the enchant- 

 ed Raja's jackal-skin in the story of "The Brahman, the Jackal 

 and the Barber." Frere's Old Deccan Days. Cox finds a paralled 

 between this and the lion-skin of Herakles. Mythology of the 

 Aryan Nations, I, 135. 



