OF THE INDO-CHINESE NATIONS. 2S1 



Lanka or Ceylon; tliough in that island, Bali com- 

 positions are frequently written in the proper Sing- 

 hala character. Of the character used in L&Wy 

 Chauipa, and A/iam, I have had no opportunity of 

 judging. Caupanius, in his " Alphabet um Banna- 

 mtm,'' p. 37, asserts, that La Loubere, in his '^ His 

 torical Relation of Slam,^' has mistaken -the Barma 

 and Ldw characters for the Bali; and Sir AY. Jones, 

 in his Sth anniversary discourse, if I understand 

 him, affirms the same thing, on the authority of a 

 native of Arakan. The fact, however, is, that La 

 Loubere's alphabet, though imperfect, as the vowels 

 are omitted, and the powers of several letters in- 

 accurately expressed, is the real Bali alphabet of 

 the Siamese, and that which I have found in use 

 among the Talapoins, both of the T'hai/ and the 

 Tliay-fhay race, however it may differ from the 

 Bali, in use among X\\t Barma and Rukheng nations. 

 This character, however, when correctly written, is 

 not round like the proper Barma character, but 

 fonned by a number of minute strokes, placed in an 

 angular position, like tlie Singliala Pushpakshara, or 

 flower- character. Indeed, on comparing the two 

 characters, the square Barma-Bali character will be 

 found to approach nearer the proper Barma character, 

 than the Bali of Siam, 



Tlie Bali is an ancient dialect of Sanso^it, which 

 sometimes approaches very near the original. When 

 allowance is made for the regular interchange of cef- 

 tain letters, the elision of harsh consonants, and the 

 contraction of similar syllables, all the vocables which 

 occur in its ancient books, seem to be purely Satis- 

 crit. In Cheritds and latter compositions, howevej-, 

 •some words of the popular languages of the country 

 sometimes insinuate themselves, in the same manner 



