in the ocean, to the extent of a day’s sailing; possessed of a lance formed of a twig of ejoo (the
gomuti, or sugar-palm); of a calewang (scimitar) wrapped in an unmade chinday (cloth); of a
creese (dagger) formed of the soul of steel, which, by a noise, expresses an unwillingness at
being sheathed, and shows itself pleased when drawn; of a date coeval with the creation;
possessed of a gun brought from heaven, named soubahana hou ouatanalla; of a horse of the
race of sorimbor-ahnee, superior to all others; Sultan of the Burning Mountain, and of the
mountains goontang-goontang, which divide Palembang and Jambee; who may slay at
pleasure without being guilty of a crime; who is possessed of the elephant named settee dewa;
who is Vicegerent of Heaven; Sultan of the Golden River; Lord of the Air and Clouds; master
of a balli (Audience-Hall), whose pillars are of the shrub jelattang; of gandangs (drums) made
of hollowed branches of the minute shrubs pooloot and seelosooree; of the gong that resounds
to the skies; of the buffalo named Se Binnooang Sattee, whose horns are ten feet asunder; of
the unconquered cock, Sengonannee; of the cocoa-nut tree whose amazing height, and being
infested with serpents and other noxious reptiles, render it impossible to be climbed; of the
flower named seeree menjeree, of ambrosial scent; who, when he goes to sleep, wakes not till
the gandang nobat (state drum) sounds; one of whose eyes is as the sun and the other as the
moon.”—Marsden, Hist. of Sum. p. 270.
On the foregoing list I should like to remark (1) that the necessity of asking pardon for
mentioning the king’s name is considered by the Peninsular Malays to be as imperative as ever.
(2) The expression “who is master of fresh water in the ocean” is explained by a passage in
Leyden’s Malay Annals (p. 37), where, all the fresh water being exhausted, “Raja Sang
Sapurba directed them to bring rotans and tie them in circles and throw them in the water; then
having himself descended into a small boat, he inserted his feet into the water, within the
circles of bamboo (sic), and by the Power of God Almighty and the virtue of a descendant of
Raja Secander Zulkarneini, the water within these circles became fresh, and all the crews
supplied themselves with it, and unto this day the fresh water is mixed with the salt at this
place.” (3) The horse, which is usually called “Sĕmbrani,” is a magic steed, “which could fly
through the air as well as swim through the water” (Leyd., Mal. Ann. p. 17). (4) For the
mountains Goontang-goontang (or Saguntang Mahamiru), cp. Leyden’s Mal. Ann. p. 20 seqq.
(5) The privilege of “slaying at pleasure without being guilty of a crime” is a privilege which
still belongs to Malay sovereigns of the first rank.
Similar sacred objects, belonging to another Sultan of “Menangcabow” named “Gaggar
Allum”(GegarʿAlam), “were a sacred crown from God”; “the cloth sansistah kallah, which
weaves itself, and adds one thread yearly of fine pearls, and when that cloth shall be finished
the world will be no more”; “the dagger Hangin Cinga (Singa?) which will, at his command,
fight of itself”; “the blue champaka flower, which is to be found in no country but his (being