18 HIKAYAT ABU XAWAS. 



visits him recovers and ascribes his recovery 

 to certain pills. The Sultan insists on try- 

 ing the pills and Abu Xawas administers 

 three in which he had mixed tahi! When 

 the Sultan discovers the trick, Abu Xawas 

 demands hush-money. 



(12) p. 41. Abu Xawas, accused of impropriety with a girl 



in the palace, is put in a tigress' cage but 



escapes being devoured by an indecent trick. 



(13) p. 53. By relating how he had worsted the tigress, 



Abu Xawas makes the Sultan laugh. The 

 laughter causes an intestinal nicer, from 

 which the Sultan suffered, to burst. 



(14) p. 55. Abu Xawas is captured by Bedouins who would 



slay and eat him. He offers to find a stout 

 friend to take his place and fetches Harun 

 a'r-Eashid. The Sultan persuades the 

 Bedouins it will be more profitable to let 

 him live and make caps. After six months' 

 captivity he embroiders on a cap a mes- 

 sage to his Vizier and is rescued. Abu 

 Xawas saves himself,, by pleading that he 

 only wished the Sultan to see the state of 

 his country. 



(15 & 16) p. 62. The concluding two connected stories are too 

 indecent even to summarize. Siti Zubaidah. 

 consort of Harun a'r-Eashid, asks to rule for 

 a day in order to punish Abu Xawas, but his 

 Eabelaisian behaviour scares her into her 

 chamber. 

 The Tjerita Aloe Nawas (Albrecht and Eusche, Batavia) is in 



poor Batavian Malay. Of three of the tales (Xos. II, IV and XI) 



I have given versions in Peninsular Malay in Tangga Pengetahuan, 

 .a Jawi Eeader for Standard III of the Government Malay Schools 



(Kelly and Walsh). The following is a summary of the contents 



of the Tjerita: — 



I. The first section contains substantially tales 1, 2 and 4 of 

 the Singapore recension. Abu Xawas is the son of a penghulu and 

 Luqman is mentioned. 



II. The tale of sewing the broken mortar. Cf. the tale of the 

 king of Egypt requiring a broken millstone to be sewn up — " The 

 story of Ahikar in iSyriac, Arabic, etc.," Conybeare, Harris and 

 Lewis Smith; Cambridge. 



III. Tale 9 of the Singapore recension. 



IV. Harun a'r-Eashid orders Abu Xawas to tell him the num- 

 ber of the stars of heaven and to determine the centre of the world. 



V. Harun a'r-Eashid sends Abu Xawas to visit His Highness' 

 sick mother and says, " I'll slay you whether you report her dead or 



, Jour. Straits Branch 



