not to break its
fore or hind leg or its spine, after death, for such was the law. Its
legs were bound and its head was fastened, and water was poured upon
it while the kadi prayed. Then he divided its windpipe. When it was
cooked, one half of it was given to the priests and the other half
to the people.

All the guests, and there were many, brought offerings of cooked rice
in the fresh green leaves of the plantain, and baskets of delicious
mangosteens, and pink mangoes and great jack-fruits. A curry was made
from the rice that had forty sambuls to mix with it. There were the
pods of the moringa tree, chilies and capsicums, prawns and decayed
fish, chutneys and onions, ducks' eggs and fish roes, peppers and
cucumbers and grated cocoanuts.

It was a wonderful curry, made by one of the Sultan's own cooks;
for the Punghulo Sahak spared no expense in the marriage of this,
his last daughter, and a great feast is exceedingly honorable in the
eyes of the guests.

Busuk's long black hair had to be done up in a marvellous chignon on
the top of her head. First, her maids washed it beautifully clean
with the juice of the lime and the lather of the soap-nut; then it
was combed and brushed until every hair glistened like ebony; next it
was twisted up and stuck full of the quaint golden and tortoise-shell
bodkins, with here and there a spray of jasmine and chumpaka.

Busuk's milky-white teeth had to be filed off more than a fourth. She
put her head down on the lap of the woman and closed her eyes tight
to keep back the hot tears that would fall, but after the pain was
over and her teeth were blackened, she looked in the mirror at her
swollen gums and thought that she was very beautiful. Now she could
chew the betel-nut from the box her mother had given her!

The palms of her hands and the nails of her fingers and toes were
painted red with henna, and the lids of her eyes touched up with
antimony. When all was finished, they led her out into the great room,
which was decorated with mats of colored palm, masses of sweet-smelling
flowers and maidenhair fern. There they placed her in the chair of
state to receive her relatives and friends.

She trembled a little for fear Mamat would not think her beautiful,
but when, last of all, he came up and smiled and claimed the bit of
betel-nut that she was chewing for the first time, and placed it in
his mouth, she smiled back and was very happy.

Then the kadi pronounced them man an