A translation of the keddaii annals. 269 
must have been great, so he kept fighting. But at the end of 
the time noticed, the four ministers stormed the wall at the 
head of their men, with loud shouts and cries. Raja Bersiyong 
instantly ran hither and thither animating Ids people to tight 
the guns, and charge the assailants, but his astonishment and 
rage became unbounded when he discovered that not a man 
had been killed on cither side; and learning that the four 
ministers were in search of him, he quickly fled out of the 
fort by a small private port in the east face, and escaped into 
the forest* The ministers on hearing of this, settled that 
two of them should follow the Raja’s reported tract, and the 
other two should search for him within the fort, in case the 
report might be untrue. When Raja Birsiyong heard the 
clamour of those despatched to kill him he took to flight in 
real earnest. 
His arms, accoutrements and clothes lay scattered about on 
the path. In this way he was pursued till next day, when the 
chase ceased, as the Raj& could not be overtaken and slain. 
Such being the state of affairs the four chiefs resolved in the 
open hall of audience to assume the reins of government. So 
every one returned quietly to his house and business. At that 
time therefore there was no R&jcl in Kedda. 
But the care and protection of the fort, and the palace and 
their inmates, devolved on these tour mantris, because R^ja 
Bersiyong had neither son nor daughter who might have 
succeeded him in the government of Kedda, 
NOTES. 
f 13] We are left in the dark as to whom this “ Malayan Raja” 
was. Indeed the locality of the Malays is nowhere mentioned. 
As our author was a Mahometan, he and the people were doubtless 
ashamed of this cannibal propensity in one of the Rajas of their 
country, and therefore invented the story of his having tushes like 
Girgassi to account for it. 
This Rajd is the only one of the Pagan Kedda family, whose 
name is familiar to the Kedda Malays of the present day ; and lie 
figures as a sort of rawliead and bloody bones, to keep children iti 
order. 
We are not to suppose that Raja Bersiyong eat greens only. 
These formed the chief ingredient in his curry. Female cooks are 
always employed by the Malays when they are married or can 
afford it. The wives and female members of a family ptepare the 
food, and the men only cook, when they cannot help it. Occa¬ 
sionally a man may be found who does not use the betel compound, 
which is generally as indispensable a necessary of life as salt. 
