Princess Play (27 page)

As sour faced as an unwilling bride

Membeli kerbau ditengah padang

Buying a buffalo in the middle of the field: buying without looking (a pig in a poke)

Membuang garam kelaut

Throwing salt into the sea: a completely useless task

Pucat lesu macam ayam kena lengit

As pale as a chicken plagued with ticks

Pukul anak sindir menantu

To hit the child to get at the daughter in law: to do something to someone to get at someone else

Punggong dipukul gigi habis tanggal

To hit the behind and knock out the teeth: to do something to someone to get at someone else

Reba menantu api

The tinder awaits the fire: a fight waiting to happen

Salin tak tumpah

Not a drop spilled: a child who is the spit and image of its parent

Seperti anjing disua antan

Like a dog poked with a stick: snarling and ready to fight

Seperti anjing disua antan

Like a dog poked with a stick: snarling and ready to fight

Seperti gading dilarek

Like polished ivory: of a beautiful woman's skin

Seperti kucing dengan panggang

Like a cat and a roast: things which cannot be kept apart (like boys and girls)

Seperti lotong meniti dahan kayu

Like a monkey making his way across a tree branch: very carefully

Seperti polong kena sembur

Like a familiar spirit touched by water: furious

Susu didada tak dapat dielakkan

There is no avoiding mother's milk: you can't change your basic nature

Untong ada, tuah tidak

There is profit, not luck: to succeed by hard work alone

Untong sabat timbul, untong batu tenggelam

It is the fate of the husk to float, the fate of the stone to sink

Usul menunjokkan asal, bahasa menunjokkan banga

Character reveals origins, speech reveals breeding

Acknowledgements

My grateful thanks to Shahmim Dhilawala, Puteh Shaharizan Shaari and Ashikin Mohd Ali Flindall for their insightful comments on Malay custom. Doug Raybeck, who first introduced me to Kelantan, taught me Malay in college and offered valuable help, not the least of which was his analysis of Main Puteri and its meaning in Kelantanese society. Bonnie Tessler constructed my website, Valerie Vogel read my books with enthusiasm, and Esther Kirk, Michele Bowen and Bryn Barnard read tirelessly, draft after draft. Joanne Spicehandler encouraged me, Richard Lord, my excellent editor, worked wonders on the text, and Phil Tatham believed in the series.

Thank you all!

Kain Songket Mysteries

Shadow Play (Vol.1)

Shadow Play
is the first in the series of Kain Songket Mysteries set in the northern state of Kelantan, Malaysia during the 1970s. Mak Cik Maryam, a
kain songket
(silk) trader in Kota Bharu Central Market, discovers a murder in her own backyard, shattering the bucolic village world she thought surrounded her. While the new Chief of Police, a pleasant young man from Ipoh whose mother's admonitions about the wiles of Kelantanese girls still ring in his ears, wrestles with the bewildering local dialect, Maryam steps up to solve the mystery herself. Her investigation brings her into the closed world of the
wayang kulit
shadow play theater and the lives of its performers–a world riven by rivalries and black magic. Trapped in a tangle of jealousy, Maryam struggles to make sense of the crime in spite of the spells sent to keep her from secrets long buried and lies woven to shield the guilty.

Princess Play (Vol.2)

Mak Cik Maryam is plunged once again into the shadowy world of murder, hatred and madness when a fellow market woman is killed after a successful
main puteri
(princess play) curing ceremony. Suddenly, the villagers she thought she knew reveal secrets she never suspected, while her good sense and solid courage lead her to unmask the murderer among them. Follow Maryam in
Princess Play
, the second Kelantanese murder case in the Kain Songket Mysteries series.

Songbird (Vol.3)

Singing doves appear to be the gentlest of creatures, and songbird contests among the most refined and rarified of activities in the northern state of Kelantan, Malaysia. Yet passions run deep among the competitors, and a shocking murder stuns the community. Mak Cik Maryam must find the murderer before more innocent lives are lost. Her investigations take her throughout Kelantan, as she guides the police in the not particularly gentle way they have come to appreciate. Join Maryam in her latest adventure,
Songbird
, the third installment in the Kain Songket Mysteries series.

About the Author

Barbara Ismail spent several years in Kelantan in the 1970s and '80s, living in Kampong Dusun and Pengkalan Cepa, studying Wayang Siam and the Kelantanese dialect. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from Yale University, and is originally from Brooklyn, New York.

Princess Play
is the second in Barbara Ismail's series of Kain Songket Mysteries based in Kelantan. The first book in the series,
Shadow Play
, won Best Debut Novel at the 2012 SBPA Book Awards in Singapore and was shortlisted for the Popular–The Star Readers' Choice Awards 2013 in Malaysia.

For more information about the author and her books, visit
www.barbaraismail.com.

Copyright

First published in digital form in 2013 by Monsoon Books

ISBN (ebook): 978-981-4423-43-4

Copyright©Barbara Ismail, 2013

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce, or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Cover Design by Cover Kitchen.

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