172 ON THE LANGUAGES AND LlTEttATURE 



For the same reasons that I infer an ancient inter- 

 course to have subsisted between the Malays and 

 Kalingas, I am induced to think that a very intimate 

 connection subsisted, at a very early period, between 

 the Malays and Javanese. Not only the proximity 

 of the island of Java^ and the constant intercourse 

 between the Malays and Javanese, point to this con- 

 nection, but the whole of Malay literature, the state 

 of the language, and the whole series of Malay his- 

 tory, confirm it. It is from the Javanese that the 

 Malays profess to have received all their earlier 

 mythological fables ; and a great variety of their 

 books profess to be translations from that language : 

 €ven in compositions professedly translated from the 

 Keling language, the Javanese name of the story is 

 often mentioned : and almost every Sanscrit tenn, 

 that occurs in Malaya, is likewise to be found in the 

 Basa Dalam Jawa^ the high language of Java, or 

 rather the language of the interior; though a muF- 

 titude of Sanscrit words, current in the Javanese 

 language, are not to be found in the Malayu. Besides 

 many of the Malay states, and those of the greatest 

 antiquity, are known to have been founded by 

 Javanese adventurers, anterior to the arrival of the 

 Arabs: and if the historical traditions of the Malays 

 were better known, there are many reasons for sup- 

 posing, that more of them would be found to claim 

 the same origin. 



The greater part of the words of Sanscrit origin, 

 found in Malayu, do not appear to have been intro- 

 duced through the medium of the Bali. In many 

 instances, the Malayu form approaches nearer the 

 pure Sanscrit than even the Bali itself; and many 

 mythological stories exist in Malayu, and ni} tholo- 

 gical characters are introduced in them, that as far 

 as I have been able to learn, do not occur in BaCi 



