Hikayat Nakhoda Muda. 
By R. 0. Winstedt, D. Litt., (Oxon.) 
" When thou canst get the ring upon my finger which never shall 
come off, and show me a child begdtHen of thy ibody that I am father 
to, then call me husband: but in such a ‘ then ’ I write a ‘never’.” 
All’s Well that Ends Well, Act III, Sc. II. 
It was Dr. H. H. Juynboll in his Catalogue of Malay manu- 
scripts in Leiden University Library (p. 171) who pointed out 
how the plot of Shakespeare’s play occurs also in a Malay romance, 
the Hikayat Nakhoda Muda. 
He might have added that the plot which Shakespeare got 
from Boccaccio is common in Indian tales. In Mary Stokes’ “ In- 
dian Fairy Tales”, p. 216, a merchant going on a long journey 
tells his wife that on his return he shall expect to find a well built 
and a son born. By a trick the woman got money to build the 
well. Disguised as a milk-maid she met her husband’s boat and 
was taken by him to live on it; when discarded, she went home 
taking Iris cap and portrait. Returning from his long journey, 
the merchant found a well built, a child born and his own cap and 
portrait — evidence of its parentage. A similar plot occurs in 
“ The Story of Madana Kama Raja ”, edited bv Natesa. Sastri, 
p. 246, and in Knowles’ “ Folk-Tales of Kashmir ”, 2nd edition, 
p. 104 and in Sinhalese folklore, — Parker’s “ Village Folk-Tales 
of Ceylon ”, vol. II, No. 92, pp. 81-2, and vol. Ill, No. 249, pp. 
235-627. In the Katha Sarit Sagara of the 11th century Kash- 
mirian poet Somadeva (Tawney’s ed. vol. II, p. 620) a Brahman 
deserts his wife, whereupon she goes to his native town and esta- 
blishing herself as a courtesan rejects all visitors 1 till her husband 
unaware of her identity stays with her: she bears him a child who 
reconciles them. 
There are two manuscripts of the Malay tale, (which is also 
known as Hikayat Siti Sara), one at Leiden (Cod. 1763 (1)) 
written at Batavia in 1825, one in the Batavian Library (Bat. 
Gen. 77) copied at Macassar in 1814. The plot is summarized by 
Juynboll (p. 171) as follows. Sultan Mansur Shah of Ghazna 
( j.t ) dreamt of a princess and sent Husain Mandari and 
Husain Mandi, sons of his vizier, to search for her. In Batlawi 
they find Siti Sara who resembles the princess of the Sultan’s 
dream. Sultan Mansur Shah weds the princess but deserts her 
Jour. Straits Branch 
