382 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



syllables in length. However, if worse comes to worst, the Malay 

 poet with true poetic license suits himself in preference to others, and 

 frequently employs as few as six or as many as thirteen syllables in 

 a line. The length of a syllable is determined by tonic accent, but 

 penult syllables not ending in a consonant are long, those ending in 

 silent i are short. But here, too, the Malay often departs from 

 theory, and his rhymes, instead of being always exact, are constructed 

 for the eye and not for the ear; and as for the short lines, they have 

 to be drawled out into a legitimate scansion. The lines are not 

 written one below another as with us, but the second opposite the 

 first, the third under the second and opposite the fourth, and so on. 

 The pantun is much employed in improvisation, the stanzas be- 

 ing recited alternately by the two taking part. To the Malayan 

 mind the beauty of this kind of verse lies in the artistic perfection 

 of each quatrain by which it is made to veil some charming metaphor, 

 which in turn serves in the last two lines to point a moral or express 

 some sentiment of love or friendship, depending on the allegory of 

 the preceding. To illustrate: 



Tinggih tinggih pokok lamburi 

 Sayang puchok-nia meniapa awan 

 Habis teloh puwas kuchari 

 Bagei punei menchari kawan. 



Bulan trang bintang berchaya 

 Burong gagah bermakan padi 

 Teka tuan tiada perchaya 

 Bela dada, melihat hati. 



The lamburi tree is tall, tall, 



Its branches sweep the sky; 

 My search is vain, and o'er is all, 



Like a mate-lorn dove am I. 



Clear is the moon, with stars agleam, 



The raven wastes in the padi field; 

 O my beloved, when false I seem, 



Open my breast, my heart is revealed. 



The waves are white on the Kataun shore, 

 And day and night they beat ; 



The garden has white blossoms o'er, 

 But only one do I think sweet. 



Deeper yet the water grows, 



Nor the mountain rain is stilled ; 



My heart more longing knows, 

 And its hope is unfulfilled. 



