HIKAYAT JAYA LANGKARA. 149 



Bayang and got two sons Makdam ( *Ji.* ) and Makdim 



{ £-XL» ). Allah grants Snkanda Eum's prayer for a son and 



she bears Jaya Langkara, with radiance as of a lamp about his 

 head, (cf. Katha Sarit Sagara, Toivney,. vol. II, p. 133 and 145, 

 Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues, Chavannes, vol. I, p. 301, II, 

 p. 17, III, p. 172) and the harvest prospered on account of his 

 birth. Astrologers prophesy luck for the young prince. Then the 

 king sends Makdam and Makdim to consult a kadzi and they bring 

 back a lying report that the kadzi prophesies disaster will come 

 from their half-brothers. 



Jaya Langkara and his mother are driven into the wilds, and 

 live Math wild beasts in a cave. Jaya Langkara strikes his hand 

 on a rock and his ringer gives forth water: — an incident common 

 in Indian folk-lore (Malm Bharata, Drona Parva LXII, where 

 Indra so feeds Prince Mandhatri ; Chavannes' op. cit., vol. Ill, p. 

 216; Parker op. cit., vol. II, p. 365.) 



His royal father falls sick and astrologers say that the only 

 remedy is a flower (kem^bang kumkuma puteh) which grows on a 

 mountain in Egypt (Masir) ! 



Now the king of Madinah falls sick. His daughter Ratna 

 Kasina dreams that only that same flower can cure him. She goes 

 in search of it and on the way passes Jaya Langkara. Then Mak- 

 dam and Makdim come. All three go on the quest, and come to 

 the haunt of a dragon, ISTaga Guna, where Ratna Kasina has al- 

 ready somehow arrived : — dahi-nya bagai bintang timor, hidong-nya 

 bagai melor jantan, pipi-nya saperti pauh di-layang, telinga-nya 

 saperti telepok laboh, rambut-nya saperti mayang mengurai, kening 

 saperti taji di-bentok dan gigi-nya saperti saga merekah, dagu-nya 

 saperti telor burong, pinggang-nya saperti pinggang-nya kerengga, 

 Jcaki-nya saperti kaldai dan tumit-nya saperti pauh di-larek, lengan- 

 nya buntaran, dan betis-nya bagai bunting padi: — the stock Persian 

 similes for female beauty. (Winstedt and Blagden's " Malay 

 Reader," p. 193.) The dragon sends a black and a white cat to 

 guard her. 



The dragon lifts them all on his head to the crest of the 

 mountain in Egypt. The dragon sleeps till the incoming tide 

 shall bring the magic flower to this hill which is the navel of the 

 seas. Impatient at this prolonged sleep (40' days) they get Ratna 

 Kasina to pluck the flower which roots itself in her hand. Mak- 

 dam and Makdim fail to take it from her hand. When Jaya Lang- 

 kara succeeds in getting a leaf of the flower they push him, the 

 leaf in his hand, into the sea: — pushing a person off a cliff is a 

 common episode in Indian folk-tales (The Jataka, No. 193, vol. 

 II, p. 82, and No. 419, vol. Ill, p. 261 ; Chavannes op. cit.,. vol. I, 

 p. 50 and 112; Parker op. cit, vol. Ill, p. 370.) The dragon 

 waking sends two cats to trace his whereabouts. 



R. A. Soc, No. 82, 1920. 



