OF THE INDO-CHINESE NATIONS. 177 



Cheritra OY Hikaiat^ also denominated Chitra and 

 Kuggaw'ui, from the Javanese, is more generally writ- 

 ten in prose, but frequently intermixed with vers^, 

 both in the measures of the *SV(yer and Pantiin. These 

 Cheritras contain tlie mythological stories current 

 among the Malay tribes, and also fragments of their 

 history, enibelhshed in a poetical manner. The three 

 great sources of all the Malay legends are the Ja^oa" 

 nese, Keling and Ai^abic languages, but in the com- 

 positions of latter date, the characters and incidents 

 are so mixed, that it is not always easy to determine 

 to which of these sources they ought to be referred. 

 There is also one class of stories which the learned 

 Malays term Susupun, I imagine from an ancient dy- 

 nasty of Javanese princes to whom they relate. Some 

 of these legends also coincide in the general story 

 with those of the Siamese, as the Malay Selimbari 

 with the Siamese Khunp'he7i; and the Hikaiat Shah 

 Murdan with the Siamese Ltn-tong. When characters 

 famihar in /Saw^cnV mythology are introduced into the 

 Malay legends, their adventures are generally trans- 

 ferred by the Malays to the interior of Java ; and 

 even Arabian characters are often represented as per- 

 forming their adventures in the Malay countries. — 

 Many of these narratives exist both in prose and 

 verse, and of several there seem to be two edi- 

 tions ; one derived immediately from the Javanese 

 language, and which commonly contains a consider- 

 able xmmhtx of Javamse vocables; the other from the 

 Keling, which often contains a certain proportion of 

 Words more immediately derived from the Sanscrit 

 and Telinga. 



Of this latter class are probably the narratives 

 termed Hikaiat Pindawa, or Pa7idu stories, whict 



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