Malayan literature; comprising romantic tales, epic poetry and royal ...

MAKOTA RADJA-RADJA 167
and a great many prosperous and famous cities were devas-
tated. All the better classes of citizens were plunged into the
most frightful distress and the most lamentable desolation,
and it would be impossible to tell how great and wide-spread
was the mourning. Now while all were groaning in affliction
the King made merry.
One day in his presumptuous pride he assembled his ministers
and his generals to show his royal power and his domination
over the people. He was seated on his throne, surrounded
by a crowd of courtiers, when suddenly a beautiful horse crossing
the city at a gallop went straight into the palace of the
King, among the ministers and the grandees. They all admired
the beautiful horse, the like of which none had ever
seen. Nobody dared to seize him as he left.
pranced from right to
Suddenly the horse approached the throne and laid down
at the feet of the King. The King patted and stroked him,
and the horse never moved. Then the wicked King began to
"
laugh and said : O my ministers, you see how far my greatness
goes. It is only at my throne that this wonderful horse
has stopped. I will mount and ride him on the esplanade."
The King ordered a saddle brought, and was placing it on the
horse with his own hands, when he received such a kick over
the heart that he was immediately killed. Then the wonderful
horse vanished, and no one saw where it went. The people all
rejoiced and said, " Of a truth, this mysterious horse was
one of the angels of God sent to exterminate a tyrant."
It was in the time of this King, and by his tyranny, that the
kingdom of the sovereign of Persia was ruled and fell into the
hands of another people. King Khochtacab, the most celebrated
of all the kings of his time, by his power, greatness, and
magnificence, had raised in rank a man named Rassat Rouchin,
"
a name which in Persia signifies sincere and brilliant." Influenced
by this fine name, the King forgot all prudence, and
without any proof of his capacity he raised this man to power
and made him minister, turning over to him tlie care of the
most important affairs in his kingdom and giving him all his
confidence. His ostensible conduct was irreproachable, and his
acts had for everybody the appearance of honesty and truth.
One day the minister Rassat Rouchin said to the King :
" The
people, on account of our leniency and goodness, are forgetting