The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

270 REVIEW ARTICLES
sisty's Explorers' and Travellers' Club organised a sort of combined
cultural and archaeological expedition to Malaya and South Siam. They
made recordings and films of dances and drama, of songs and stories,
and in Siam plunged into a little on-the-spot archaeological research,
One of the party, Mr. Stewart Wavell, wrote a book about the trip,
(The Naga King's Daughter, Allen and Unwin, London, 1964.) Wavell's
account of his Princess Sadong and Lakawn Suka is charming, so I will
quote extensively. First of all, travelling by train from Kelantan to
Haadyai, he met a Thai girl called Golden Naga. She was a Nora dancer
from Patani province-her home was at a place called Bukit Sangkalakilee
in the District of Yarang some fifteen miles from the provincial capital.
The party finally got to Yarang and tl1e discoveries there recorded:
(Quotation starts): Her name was Golden Naga, a coincidence
that made me smile at the time, but I was soon to learn that such
names are not unusual in South Thailand. She came from a place
called Bukit Sankalakilee in Patani, and she spoke Malay, because
there was a Malay village nearby. She bad not been back to her
home for many years. She was a dancer in a Menora troupe which
travelled throughout South Thailand.
I pointed out that in Malaya, girls' parts in Menora were
taken by young boys made up to look like girls, and that, to my
knowledge, girls were not allowed to perform. She did not seem
surprised and said that long ago the same custom was observed in
Thailand. Perhaps her most revealing answer was given to my
question: "Why do you dance in Men ora?" At first, she explained
that her father was a Menora performer and that she had been
brought up to be a dancer. Then she realized I expected something
more from her answer and, as an afterthought, she said: ·'It is the
oldest of all magic from the land of Lakawn Suka. We merely
pay our respect to the Princess Sadong."
Anyone familiar with Malay folklore would have shared my
excitement to hear these two ideas in immediate juxtaposition.
Lakawn Suka was the Patani Malays' fairyland equivalent to
Langasuka, and Princess Sadong was the Fairy Princess of Kedah
"Whom all could worship but none could marry." Only recently
I had heard the name again. But where? And then I remembered.
In Kelantan we were told the story of a Princess who lived on top