Note 16 — Chapter IV · CELEBES AND TIMUR.

The early kings of Macassar boasted that they descended from the Tormanurong, who, according to their legends, had this miraculous history as given in Pinkerton’s “Voyages,” vol. ii., p. 216. In the earliest times, it happened that a beautiful woman, adorned with a chain of gold, descended from heaven, and was acknowledged by the Macassars as their queen. Upon hearing of the appearance on earth of this celestial beauty, the King of Bantam made a long voyage to that land, and sought her hand in marriage, though he had before wedded a princess of Bontain. His suit was granted, and a son was begotten in this marriage, who was two or three years old before he was born, so that he could both walk and talk immediately after his birth, but he was very much distorted in shape. When he was grown up, he broke the chain of gold which his mother had brought from heaven into two pieces, after which she, together with her husband, vanished in a moment, taking with her one half the chain, and leaving the other half and the empire to her son. This chain, which the Macassars say is sometimes heavy and sometimes light, at one time dark colored and at another bright, was ever afterward one of the regalia of the kings until it was lost in a great revolution.