were all so marvellously noisy, brave, and defiant, that, in spite of an occasional
girlish giggle from one or another of them, I began to fear there would be bad
trouble before the dawn. So wild was their excitement, and so maddening was
the din they made, that, though Tŭngku Aminâh shrieked louder than any one of
them, she could not make herself heard above the tumult; and it was not until she
had scratched the faces of those nearest to her, and smitten others with the flat of
her sword, that she succeeded in reducing her followers to even a partial silence.
Then she beat upon the barred door of Tŭngku Indut's house with her naked
weapon, and cried shrilly to her brother:—
'Come forth, Indut! Come forth, if thou art in truth the son of the same father as
myself! Come forth!'
'Come forth!' echoed the army, and the deafening din of defiance broke out once
more, and was again with difficulty repressed by Tŭngku Aminâh.
'Come forth!' she shrilled once more, 'come forth that I may rip thy belly, and
cause thy entrails to gush out upon the ground!'
'Come forth, thou accursed and ill-omened one!' echoed the army, with the
unanimity of Pickwick's thirty boarders.
Indut, however, did not show any signs of coming forth; but when the women
had screamed themselves hoarse and out of breath, his gruff voice sounded from
within the house, like the growl of a wild beast, after all that shrill feminine
yelping.
'Go hence, Iang!' he shouted, 'get thee to thy bed, thou foolish one; disturb not
one who desires to slumber, and waken not the fowls with thy unmaidenly
shouting.'
Now, when Tŭngku Aminâh heard these words she dropped her sword, and beat
upon the door with her little bare hands, weeping and screaming in a perfect
ecstasy of rage, and showering curses and imprecations on her brother. The army
joined in the torrent of abuse, and a very pretty set of phrases were sent spinning
through the clean night air. At length, Tŭngku Aminâh, finding that she only
bruised her hands, again took up her sword, and, as soon as she could make
herself heard, renewed her challenge to her brother to come forth.
When this scene had continued for about twenty minutes, and I was beginning to
fear that the Devil would prompt Tŭngku Aminâh to fire her brother's house, and