3 8o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



traced such works as Sri Rama, a free translation of the Ramayana; 

 the Hikayat Pancha Tantra, an adaptation of the Hitaspodesa; 

 Radin Mantri, a history of the love affairs of a Javan royal prince ; 

 the Shair Bidasari, an epic; and several other such epics and ro- 

 mances. 



One must not think that the language of these works is old- 

 fashioned or obsolete, as Beowulf and Chaucer are to us, or the 

 Niebelungen Lied in German. On the contrary, they are full of 

 Arabic words and many other marks of recent composition; but it 

 is the matter, the conditions of life described, the evident antiquity 

 of the very feeling of the productions, that lead one to refer them 

 to the early period. 



There are also some works that are genuinely Malay in origin 

 and inspiration, and probably of a date that would put them between 

 the ancient and modern periods. Of such is Hong Tuah, a story of 

 a prince of Malacca who was a kind of King Arthur of his day. This 

 work exists in several manuscripts, some of which are in England, 

 one in Leyden, and one or two in the East Indies, and the date of the 

 oldest is not before 1172 of the Hegira. Considering the fact that 

 the year 1317 of the Mohammedan era does not commence till May 

 12, 1899, we thus see that many of the manuscripts of Malay litera- 

 ture are of no great antiquity. Another of these intermediate works 

 is the Sejarat Malayu, or Malay Annals, which narrates the history 

 of the Malays of Malacca, and their heroic defense against the Por- 

 tuguese in the year 1511. It is divided into chapters, and is about 

 the only notable historical composition in the language. 



The modern period is that period which marks the domination 

 of Islam in the far East, the period in which the Malay mind has 

 adjusted itself to a new faith and a new education. It is hard to 

 tell when Mohammedanism first obtained a real foothold among 

 the Malays, but probably not much before the fourteenth century. 

 However, the conquest when once effected was complete, and to-day 

 the people of Tanah Malayu are among the strictest followers of 

 the Prophet. 



In a certain sense this period of the literature has been fruitful, 

 but not so fruitful as the former one. Originality has been checked 

 and imagination deadened, and the result is seen in a loss of sprightli- 

 ness and vivacity. Works of morals and philosophy and compila- 

 tions of Mohammedan law, have flourished. Still, we find some prose 

 works of this period which are commendable; they even have some 

 of the spirit of the earlier writings by which, no doubt, they were 

 inspired; among these may be mentioned the Tadju Elsalathin, or 

 Crown of Kings, by a mendicant monk, and the Hikayat Sultan 

 Ibrahim, a religious romance of some beauty and pathos. 



