Note 212 — Chapter V · Magic Rites connected with the Several Departments of Nature (continued 2)

These are the names of two girls mentioned in the “Malay Annals” (Sĕjarah Malayu) to whose rice there happened a strange phenomenon. The following is Leyden’s translation (in which the names appear as Ampu and Malin). “The name of its (the country of Palembang’s) river was Muartatang (Muartenang ?) into which falls another river named Sungey Malayu (Malay River), near the source of which is a mountain named the mountain Sagantang Maha Miru (v. p. 2, supra). There were two young women of Belidung, the one named Wan-Ampu, and the other Wan-Malin, employed in cultivating rice on this mountain, where they had large and productive rice-grounds. One night they beheld their rice-fields gleaming and glittering like fire. Then said Ampu to Malin, ‘What is that light which is so brilliant? I am frightened to look at it.’ ‘Make no noise,’ said Malin, ‘it is some great snake or naga.’ Then they both lay quiet for fear. When it was daylight they arose and went to see what it was shone so bright during the night. They both ascended the hill, and found the grain of the rice converted into gold, the leaves into silver, and the stalks into brass, and they were extremely surprised, and said, ‘This is what we observed during the night.’” The account proceeds to show how the prodigy was due to a supernatural visit from a descendant of Raja Secander Zulkarneini.—Leyden, Mal. Ann., pp. 20, 21. The words in brackets are mine. ↑