girls within the palace, and the town which lay around it, who cast loving eyes
upon them. Âwang, however, cared little for this, for, by the irony of that Fate
which always directs that men should fall in love with the wrong women, and
vice versâ, his heart was eaten up with a fiery desire for a girl who was a jâmah-
jâmah-an, or casual concubine of the King, and who resolutely declined to have
ought to do with him. Nevertheless, the moth still fluttered around the candle,
and Âwang never missed an opportunity of catching a passing glimpse of the
object of his longing. It was an evil day for both Âwang Îtam and Tûan Bângau,
however, when, as they swaggered past the palace-fence, seeking to peep at this
girl, they were seen by the King's daughter, Tŭngku Ûteh, and a desire was
straightway born in her breast for the young and handsome Saiyid.
In the East, love affairs develop quickly; and that very day Âwang Îtam again
saw Iang Mûnah, the girl whom he had loved so long and so hopelessly, and by a
flash of an eye-lid was informed that she had that to tell him which it concerned
him to know. When both parties desire a secret interview many difficulties may
be overcome, and that evening Âwang whispered into the ear of Tûan Bângau
that 'the moon was about to fall into his lap.'
'I dreamed not long since,' said Tûan Bângau, 'that I was bitten by a very
venomous snake!' And then Âwang knew that his friend was ready for any
adventure.
To dream of a snake bite, among any of the people of the Far East, means that
ere long the dreamer will receive generous favours from some lady who is either
of exalted rank, or of most surpassing beauty. The greater the venom of the
snake, the brighter, it is believed, are the qualities with which the dreamer's
future mistress is endowed. It is not only in Europe, that venom enters into the
soul of a man by reason of a woman, and this is, perhaps, the explanation of how
this dream comes to bear this peculiar interpretation.
Tûan Bângau's position was a curious one. He did not desire Tŭngku Ûteh for
herself; she was his King's daughter, and the wife of a royal husband; and his
duty and his interest alike forbade him to accept her advances. If his intrigue
with her was discovered, he was a ruined, if not a dead man, and, moreover, he
was at this time devoted to another girl, whom he had recently married. The
challenge which had been conveyed to him, however, was one which, in spite of
all these things, his code of honour made it impossible for him to refuse. The
extreme danger, which lay in such an intrigue, gave him no choice but to accept
it. That was his point of view, 'His honour rooted in dishonour stood,' and no