Page 187 - Malay sketches

THE KING'S WAY

found no more favour in the sight of the King.
But there were many who said :
Nasruan Bahtek
"Sfyerti dengan
Ber-sdtu
rangkesa
Ber-cherei jddi sentosa."
"They are like Raja Nasruan and his minister
Bahtek their union their divorce
; brought ruin,
solace." it was the of the
Indeed, opportunity
proverb-monger, and such sayings as, "It is some-
times one's own forefinger which pokes one in the
"
eye," and, While you carry the Raja's business on
your head, don't forget to keep your own under
your arm," were heard on all sides.
The King had a clerk who had served him faith-
for or more. The clerk had a
fully twenty years
wife, and the King's eye fell upon her approvingly;
so the King sent the clerk into a far to
country
chase a wild bird, and bestowed his favour upon the
wife who remained under his care. The King also
bestowed upon the lady sundry jewels of price,
things that please poor heathen women with hardly
any moral character and no education to speak of.
By-and-by the King got tired of the woman, as
unprincipled Eastern kings will do, and he sought
about for some means, not to rid himself of her,
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