\76 OS THE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE 



to damp the ardour of composition, and extinguish 

 poetical fire. The construction of the Malay is ana- 

 logous to that of tiie monosyllabic languages, and 

 there is also considerable similarity in the character 

 of its compositions. The most favourite species of 

 composition among the Malays, is the Pantun, a 

 word which is generally translated song, but which 

 perhaps might with more propriety be rendered 

 simile or proverb, as it consists of a simile, proverb, or 

 apophthegm versified, and its application. APantun 

 is a rhyming quatrain, and is always restricted to 

 four lines; hence it affects a kind of oracular brevity, 

 which is very difficult to be comprehended by Euro- 

 pea?is, who can seldom perceive any connection be- 

 tween the similitude and the application. The Ma- 

 lays allege, that the application of the image, maxim, 

 or similitude, is always accurate ; but it may be sus- 

 pected that if one half of the verse be for the sense, 

 It often happens that the other is only for the rhyme, 

 as in the ancient fVelsh triads or triplets, in which 

 there is professedly no connection between the na- 

 tural image and the moral maxim. These Pantutis 

 the Malays often recite, in alternate contest, for 

 several hours; the preceding Pantiin always fur- 

 nishing the catch-word to that which follows, until 

 one of the parties be silenced or vanquished, or as the 

 Malays express it, be dead, siida mati. Many of these 

 Pantims bear no inconsiderable resemblances to the 

 Dohras and Kiibitas in the ancient Hinduvi and Vruja 

 dialects of Hindostan. 



The Sayer is another species of composition, which 

 is analogous to the Persic Musnevi. Moral poenis, re- 

 sembling the Pundnamkhs of the Persiam, didactic 

 works, or descriptive compositions and legendary or 

 heroic narratives, are composed in this measure. The 



