108 
H IK AY AT NAKHODA MUD A. , 
Once a king died, bequeathing each of his three sons a treasure- 
house ( gudang ) and a magic stone ( kemala ). The eldest son 
plots to rob the youngest of his inheritance who resists. The 
vizier advises them all to take the case before a neighbouring just 
king. The eldest and second brother travel to his court with a 
retinue. The youngest on foot and alone encounters a headless 
corpse and the tracks of a buffalo. Two men ask him if he has 
met their brother. ‘ Xo ’ he replies, ‘ but I saw just now the 
corpse of a confirmed betel-eater with a moustache and black 
teeth ’. Seeing that the corpse is headless, they infer he must have 
been the murderer and arrest him. Two more men come up and 
ask if a stray buffalo has been noticed. ‘ Xo ’ replies the prince, 
‘ but I passed the tracks of a toothless old buffalo, blind in the 
right eye ’. They think he must be the thief. He is carried off 
to prison in the country of the righteous king, who tries the case. 
The prince explains that he recognized the headless corpse as that 
of a betel-eater, because the first finger was red and the finger-nails 
full of lime; his teeth would be black, because the ring finger was 
black with burnt coconut-shell (y crapy) : he must have had a 
moustache because his chest was hairy. As for the buffalo, he was 
large because his tracks were large, and blind in one eye because 
he fed only on one side of the path, and toothless because he failed 
to bite the grass clean. He is acquitted of murder and theft. 
The just king proclaims that whoever can settle the dispute be- 
tween the three brother princes shall be made vizier. A merchant’s 
son undertakes the task, choosing the sea-shore for the trial. The 
eldest prince produces two magic stones 1 and says the third is lost. 
The judge snatches them, runs off and pretends to throw them into 
the sea. The eldest prince stands still, the two younger race to 
save the stones. The judge declares that indifference shows the 
eldest prince must have had his stone; he lies in denying he ever 
had one. 
The night spent in story-telling, the disguised sea-captain re- 
turns to her ship. Her parroquet hears that the next test of sex 
is to be bathing. She arranges that all shore-lw>ats be made unsea- 
worthy and that her ship shall seem afire as the bathing, which is 
by her request to be on the shore, begins. At the cry of fire she 
hurries back to her ship. Other boats follow to help dout the fire 
but sink. The onlookers from the shore see blazing coconut husk 
cast overboard, the fire douted and the captain with loosened 
woman’s hair preparing to sail away. Bikrama Indra faints and 
his father distracted cries, “What mountains do you climb? What 
plains do you traverse that your ears are deaf to my cries?” 
Maharaja Johan Shah marries princess Indra Medani of Lang- 
gadura and returns home with his bride and her brother Dewa Lak- 
sana. Xinety-nine princes (as in the Hikayat Indraputra — Snouek 
Hurgronje’s “The Achehnese” vol. 88, p. 148) come to woo the 
heroine, Ratna Kemala, their boats meeting at sea “ like buffaloes 
on a plain Her brother announces that by his father’s will his 
Jour. Straits Branch 
