A NANING RECITAL. 
7 
40. For the Clan an Elder, 
For the Bridegroom the Kin of the Bride ;( 4 ) 
For the burden a support, ( 5 ) 
For the boat a mooring, 
For the stranger a surety. 
And there is another saying : 
The sugar-palm grows down to death, ( G ) 
The elm grows up to death, 
But man endures in generations, 
From the generation of the old to the generation of 
the young, 
50. Obeying the tradition of the Four Tribes and the 
Lesser Eight. ( T ) 
Homage, 0 Chief ! 
Now the tradition that they keep 
Is the tradition that came down in Menangkabau, 
The land that is called 
The circle of the Isle of Sumatra, 
The stretch of Malay Land, 
Wherever a clod of earth is turned, 
Wherever a trail of creeper cut, 
Wherever a tree-trunk felled. 
60. From whom came the tradition? 
From Maharaja Di Baja, ( 8 ) 
Who descended from the Hill of Fire, 
Where the hiving trees are pegged with iron,( 9 ) 
Where wasps haunt every knotted bole. 
Where hornets guard the path on either hand. 
Homage, 0 Chief ! 
And Maharaja Di Baja came down, 
Down to the plain of Padang Panjang, 
A place of stubble and severed scrub, ( 10 ) 
70. A place of stumps and tree-trunks felled, 
A place of graves and upturned earth, 
To build him a Palace there in the plain of Padang 
Panjang. 
The far folk were bidden, 
The near folk were called : 
The far folk came, 
The near folk met together. 
Then sipake Maharaja Di Baja 
To the folk of the plain of Padang Panjang: 
‘Mix ye the magic rice-paste^ 11 ) 
80. Cut ye the creeper. 
Fell ye the tree, 
Delve ye the sod ! ’ 
The song 
tells of the 
revelation 
of the Custom 
in Menang- 
kabau. 
Of the 
coming of the 
King, Maha- 
raja Di Raja. 
Of the build- 
ing of his 
magic Palace 
R. A. Soc., No. 83, 1921. 
