A NANING RECITAL'. 23 
A curious corruption of line 89 may 'be found incor- 
porated in a charm addressed to the Demon Sungkai (Malay 
Magic, page 105) : 
Bertaborkan batang purut-purut, 
translated ‘ Strewn over with the stems of purut-purut ’ — 
whatever that may mean ! 
13. Lines 91-92. It has been suggested that the ‘killing’ of the 
architect does not seem a Malay idea — and that bunoh here 
means only that he was prohibited from practising his art. 
That is a possible translation of bxinoh ; but (apart from the 
fact that most Malay romance is borrowed from the Hindu), 
I think the meaning here is the primary one of kill. There is 
a parallel in the story of Awang Sulong Merah Muda : a tooth- 
filer is hired for him at a fee of $28 and then killed 
( Sa-liari sudah tukang di-bunoh, 
Jangan tertiru di-Mengkasar ) , 
shrouded, buried, and feasted over for seven days. And in 
the story of Anggun Che’ Tunggal, for the building of the 
hero’s ship — 
Tiga-puloh di-bunoh tukang 
Baharu di-ambil tukang bongkok 
(Dr. Winstedt translates: 
‘ Thirty craftsmen slain, they summoned 
Hunch-back exile from Macassar.’). 
14. Line 106. Besi pemndeh seems to mean the iron prong used 
to ‘ hold ’ an amok runner. 
But it might also riiean iron weights used for torture, similar 
to the peine forte et dure, a form of torture that was legal in 
England until the reign of George III. 
Lines 10k-107 are out of their context: the ‘cord’ be- 
longed to the Lembaga, the ‘ kris ’ to the Undang, and the 
‘ sword ’ to the Raja. See Rembau, page 104, and Notes on 
the Negri Sembilan, pages 40-42. 
15. Lines 120-121. The ‘Chieftains Twain’ are the famous law- 
givers of Malay myth. 
Newbold says : “ The lawgivers, Kai Tumungong and 
Perpati Sabatang, were brothers, and pretended, by Moham- 
medan writers, to have been among the forty persons who went 
with Noah into the ark. Some say that Perpati was no other 
than Japhet: others, with more plausibility, affirm that Perpati 
is a corruption of the Hindoo Prajapati, signifying Lord of 
creatures ; and that the two brothers were ministers of one of 
the Hindoo sovereigns of Menangkabau, who reigned long 
before the introduction of Islam. 
R. A. Soc., No. 83, 1921. 
