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1 8 MAN AND THE UNIVERSE CHAP.
pened as often as a stroke was given.
Then the king
grew wroth, and getting down from his elephant he
drew his own sword and made a cut with it at the
bamboo, which severed a stem. Then, by the divine
decree of the Dewatas, the king became aware of a
female form in the bamboo clump seated on a highly
ornamented platform (geta), her face shining like the
full moon when it is fourteen days old, and the colour
of her body being like gold of ten touch. On this,
King Dasaratha quickly unloosed his
girdle and
saluted the princess. Then he lifted her on to his
elephant and took her to his palace escorted by music
and singing.'" l
I myself have heard among the Selangor Malays
similar legends to the above, which, as already pointed
out, are common in Malay romances. A parallel myth
is described in the following words :
" Now, the Perak river overflows its banks once a
year, and sometimes there are very great floods.
Soon after the marriage of Nakhodah Kasim with
the white Semang, 2 an unprecedented flood occurred
and quantities of foam came down the river. Round
the piles of the bathing-house, which, in accordance
with Malay custom, stood in the bed of the river
close to the bank in front of the house, the floating
volumes of foam collected in a mass the size of an
elephant. Nakhodah Kasim's wife went to bathe,
and finding this island of froth in her way she
attempted to move it away with a stick ; she removed
the upper portion of it and disclosed a female infant
1
J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 17. Notes
and Queries, No. 4, sec. 94.
2
Semangs are aboriginal non-Muhammadan
inhabitants of the interior
mates to that of the Negritos of the
Andaman Islands and the Philippines,
but the one referred to in this legend
had white blood, which is considered
of the Peninsula. Their type approxi- by Malays to be the royal colour.