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her. But he had a job to do, so he conveyed his king’s wish to marry the princess
and
Nenek Kebayan
, who served the princess, disappeared to deliver the message.
When she came back she had quite a message for the king.
Though many princesses would have just said “no”, the princess of
Mount
Ledang
came up with a list of tasks for the king to complete before he could wed
her. And because the king was too proud to admit that his proposal was being
rejected, he began to undertake the tasks.
She had seven requests. First she demanded for a golden bridge connecting
Mount Ledang
to the king’s palace. And just so you understand the ludicrous
request,
Mount Ledang
and Malacca are roughly 60km apart. But the requests,
didn’t stop there. She also wanted a silver bridge for her to walk on back from
Malacca to Mount Ledang, because, for her, one bridge was not enough. Then
there was the request for seven trays of mosquito hearts, seven trays of germs’
hearts (we don’t understand this either), and seven jars of virgin tears to be used
as bath water for the princess. And, the legend gets creepier – she wanted seven
jars of betel nut juice and a bowl of blood … not the king’s but his son’s blood.
The team returned to Malacca with the requests. And the legend says that the
king miraculously was able to complete the first six tasks but this led to the demise
of the Malacca Kingdom. While on the last task, the story starts wavering.
There are a couple of versions about the ending. One talks about the king
being willing to sacrifice his son. But just as he was about to slit the kid’s throat,
the princess appears before the king and condemns his actions, at the same time
stating that the requests were a way to tell the king she wasn’t interested in him.
Another account says that the king could not kill his son who was the only heir
to the Malacca throne and so gave up on the princess.
We don’t really know what happened, but the story is very much alive, sur-
rounding the beautiful
Gunung Ledang
. Today, it is one of the hottest destinations
for some rest and relaxation.