98 
HIKAYAT PUSPA WIRAJA. 
fisherman is spoken of but it is not quite clear if there are still 
two.) The captain who had carried off Puspa Wiraja’s consort 
heard of the fame of the elephant chosen king and sailed off to 
Semanta Pura Xegara. He was well received and feasted. As the 
feasting Avas to last all night, the king sent his tAVo young heralds 
to guard the captain’s ship. Keeping watch on board outside the 
cabin wherein their mother unknown to them was confined, the 
two young men talked and the elder to. keep the younger aAvake 
told him Avho their parents really Avere. Their mother, Avaking 
from a dream that a young man gave her tAvo fio Avers ( bunga ian- 
jong) overheard their talk, recognized that they must be her sons 
and rushing out of her cabin embraced them to the scandal of the 
crew who reported to their master. The king in a rage at the loose 
conduct of his young heralds ordered their execution. In vain 
their mother cried out the truth: the captain kept her on board. 
The boys Avere led to execution, but the watchman at the eastern 
gate of the city refused egress, declaring it Avas an old custom that 
execution might not take place at night, and in the morning the 
king mijght change his mind. He points the moral with the tale of 
the golden plantain. 
“ Once a prince ordered his chief astrologer to choose an 
auspicious moment for commencing to build a palace. ‘ Begin to 
build when T strike my magic gong and the palace will be golden,’ 
said the astrologer. On the sound of the gong the first post Avas 
planted but the palace did not turn to gold and the astrologer was 
executed. One day an old husbandman brought a golden plantain 
to the prince. ‘ I got it,’ he explained, ‘ from a. sucker I planted 
at the stroke of the gong beaten when the building of your palace 
commenced.’ Then too late the prince repented of the execution 
of his astrologer.” 
So the executioners went to seek egress from the southern 
gate. “ These boys accused of making love ! ” said the gate-keeper. 
“ Besides, executions may not be carried out at night, and the king 
may repent of his haste. Have you not heard the tale of the magic 
mango. 
“ Once a prince had a pet parroquet, which would fly into 
the forest and bring him fruit. One day the parroquet came to a 
mango tree and heard the birds in its foliage say, ‘ Whoever eats 
the fruit of this tree, his body will become golden.’ So he took a 
mango back in his beak and told his master. ‘ We Avill plant the 
mango and get many fruit,’ said the king. When the tree grew 
up, the prince ordered an old man to go out and eat the first ripe 
mango which had fallen. It had rolled unnoticed into a cobra’s 
nest and there Avas venom on it. The old man fell dead. In fury 
and suspicion the prince killed his parroquet. ‘ The fruit of this 
tree shall be used instead of the creese for executions,’ he ordered. 
But the first robber ordered to eat of the fruit turned golden. 
Only then did the prince, sorrowing for his parroquet, make en- 
quiries and discover the existence of the cobra’s nest.” 
Jour. Straits Branch 
