It had been forged by the son of God’s prophet, Adam, smelted in the palm of
his hand, fashioned with the end of his finger, and coloured with the juice of
flowers in a Chinese furnace. Its deadly qualities came down to it from the sky,
and if cleaned (with acid) at the source of a river, the fish at the embouchure
came floating up dead.
“The sword that he wore was called lang pĕngonggong,^30 ‘the successful
swooper,’ lit. the ‘kite carrying off its prey.’
“The next article described is his turban, which, among the Malays, is a square
handkerchief folded and knotted round the head.”
“He next took his royal handkerchief, knotting it so that it stood up with the ends
projecting; one of them he called dĕndam ta’ sudah (endless love): it was
purposely unfinished; if it were finished the end of the world would come. It had
been woven in no ordinary way, but had been the work of his mother from her
youth. Wearing it he was provided with all the love-compelling secrets. (The
names of a number of charms to excite passion are given, but they cannot be
explained in the compass of a note).”^31
He wore the Malay national garment—the sarong. It was “a robe of muslin of
the finest kind; no ordinary weaving had produced it; it had been woven in a jar
in the middle of the ocean by people with gills, relieved by others with beaks; no
sooner was it finished than the maker was put to death, so that no one might be
able to make one like it. It was not of the fashion of the clothing of the rajas of
the present day, but of those of olden time. If it were put in the sun it got
damper, if it were soaked in water it became drier. A slight tear mended by
darning only increased its value, instead of lessening it, for the thread for the
purpose cost one hundred dollars. A single dewdrop dropping on it would tangle
the thread for a cubit’s length, while the breath of the south wind would
disentangle it.”
Finally, we get a description of the way in which the Raja (S’ri Rama) set out
upon his journey.
“He adopted the art called sedang budiman, the young snake writhed at his feet
(i.e. he started at mid-day when his own shadow was round his feet), a young
eagle was flying against the wind overhead; he took a step forward and then two