months, came to an end.
Then Si Malim Panjang, elder brother of Si Malim Bongsu, decided to take the
place of his younger brother, and be married to the Princess Telan. The latter,
however, repelled his advances, and he therefore attacked her savagely; but she
turned herself into an ape (siamang) and escaped to the jungle, so that Si Malim
Panjang desisted from pursuit. Then the ape climbed up into a pagar-anak tree
which grew on the sea-shore, and leaned over the sea, and there she chanted
these words:—
“O my dear Malim Bongsu,
You have broken your solemn promise and engagement,
And I have to take upon myself the form of an ape.”Now Si Malim Bongsu was passing at the time, and on recognising the voice of
the Princess Telan he took a blow-gun and shot her so that she fell into the sea.
Then he took rose-water and sprinkled it over her, so that she resumed her
natural shape, and they started to go home together. Still, however, Si Malim
Bongsu would not wed her, but promised that he would do so when he came
back from his next voyage, whereupon the Princess chanted these words:—
“If you do not return within three months
You will find me turned into an ape.”The same course of events, however, happened as before. Malim Bongsu did not
return at the time appointed; his elder brother, Malim Panjang once more
attacked her, and, leaping towards an areca palm, she once more became an ape,
whereupon she chanted as before:—
“O my dear Malim Bongsu,
You have broken your solemn promise and engagement,
And I am forced to become an ape.”Again Malim Bongsu, as he passed by, heard and recognised her voice; but upon
learning that he had been for the second time the cause of his Princess’s troubles,
he exclaimed, “Better were it for me were I nothing but a big fish”; and leaping
into the water he disappeared, and was changed into a big fish as he desired.