HIKAYAT SERI RAMA. 3 
will give those who are unable to read the original an insight 
into the style of a genuine Malay legendary romance. 
_ The story opens in the kingdom of Tanjong Bunga, the 
Raja of which is called Séri Rama, married to the Princess 
Sa-kuntum Bunga Sa-tangkai (a single blossom on a stalk). 
Séri Rama’s peace of mind is disturbed by the fact that, though 
he has been married for three years, he has no child, and for 
three months and ten days he ponders over this want of an heir. 
An idea occurs to him one night, and on rising in the morning 
he goes into the outer hall of his palace and ringing the alarm- 
bell brings all his people together. A metrical passage in which 
a tropical daybreak is described is not without some beauty of 
expression. The following is a somewhat free translation :— 
Long had past the hour of midnight, 
Lingered yet the coming day-light ; 
Twice ere now had wakening infants 
Risen and sunk again in slumber; 
Wrapped in sleep were all the elders, 
Far away were pheasants calling, 
In the woods the shrill cicada, 
Chirped and dew came dropping earthwards. 
Now lowed oxen in the meadows, 
Moaned the buffaloes imprisoned, 
Cocks, with voice and wings, responded. 
And with feebler note the mraz. 
Soon the first pale streak of morning, 
Rose and upwards soared the night birds ; 
Pigeons cooed heneath the roof-tree, 
Fitful came the quail’s low murmur ; 
On the hearth lay last night’s embers, 
Foot-long brands burned down to inches, 
Heralds all of day’s approaching. 
The palace is deseribed with theusual oriental exaggeration 
The length of the outer audience chamber is as far as the 
flight of bird, as far as the eye can see, as far as a horse can 
gallop at a stretch.” Part of the art of the story-teller consists 
in piling up similes and synonymous descriptive phrases in this 
R. A. Soc., No. 55, 1909. 
