HIKAYAT PUSPA WIRAJA. 
103 
A version fairly near the Malay may be read in Payne’s 
“ Tales from the Arabic of the Breslau an Calcutta editions of the 
1001 Nights,” vol. II, pp. 66-80, (London 1884). The hero is a 
king of Hind. The queen is persuaded to go aboard the merchant’s 
ship by the treachery of an old man with whom she and the king 
lodged after the loss of their children at the river. The king is 
chosen to a vacant throne by an elephant. There is a proper trial 
of the two pages who are the king’s sons, and they are acquitted. 
The merchant, a Magian, is tortured to death. No tales are inset. 
In the “Arabian Nights” (Lady Burton’s ed., vol. Ill, p. 
366) a poor Jew with his wife and two sons are wrecked, and 
separated. The father becomes king of an island where a voice 
reveals to him buried treasure. His sons, not knowing that lie is 
their father or the}'' are brothers, take service at court. They are 
set to guard their mother who is brought by a merchant. Con- 
versing they discover they are brothers and their mother overhear- 
ing them recognizes them to be her sons. She persuades the mer- 
chant to complain to the king of their improper conduct and so 
they are revealed to the king as his sons and she as his wife. 
The selection of a ruler by a sagacious elephant is common in 
Indian stories: — Parker, op. cit., vol. I, p. 81; Natesa Sastri’s 
“The Story of Madana Kama Baja,” p. 125, ff., a Tamil story; 
Hay’s “ Folk-Tales of Bengal,” p. 99. Sometimes a festal car 
drawn by horses takes the place of an elephant. “ It is said that 
in Benares, when a king died, four lotus coloured horses were 
yoked to a festive carriage, on which were displayed the five em- 
blem's of royalty (sword, parasol, diadem, slipper and fan). This 
was sent out of a gate of the city and a priest bade it proceed to 
him who had sufficient merit to rule the kingdom.” (The Jatakas, 
No. 445, ed. E. B. Cowell IV, 25 ; cf. also Francis and Thomas’ 
. “Jataka. Tales,” p. 418). 
That the insetting of plot within plot is Indian is remarked 
in my paper on the Hikayat Nakhoda Muda. 
R. A. Soc., No. 83, 1921. 
