226 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



language and with Malay habits of thought, that it 

 will dawn upon you that the thing which is bewilder- 

 ing you is an airy allusiveness, and that you have not 

 got the key to the allusions. You will probably have 

 been some years in the country before you realise that 

 a Malay considers it crude to say outright what he 

 has in his mind, and that he will prefer to let his 

 meaning be known by a reference to a proverb, a 

 quotation of a line of rhymed pantun, or a hint at 

 the moral of a folk-tale. 



This allusive style of conversation (regarding which 

 I would like to digress for a moment, for I think 

 that it will afford a clue to a riddle that puzzles many 

 people) reaches its most exaggerated and fantastic 

 form in the quotations from the pantuns, which are 

 rhymed quatrains whose third and fourth lines alone 

 carry the sense, while the first and second lines supply 

 the rhymes. 



Here is an example in which the translation is in 

 the metre of the original : 



" The fish fry play in the shallows, 



While the big fish swim without. 

 Tell me, beloved, the truth at once, 

 For my heart is tortured with doubt." 



It is part of an amatory song, but in a serious dis- 

 cussion among the village elders you may hear a man 

 say slowly and thoughtfully 



" The fish fry play in the shallows ; " 



and though, of course, the words convey no meaning 

 to you, unless you are acquainted with the pantun, 



