1877.] Feninsula and the Indian Archipelago. 223 



but it is exuberant and redundant in some particulars, and meagre in others ; 

 and the language o£ deference is made a study and science. The literature 

 is threefold, Hindu, Arabic, and indigenous, and chiefly poetry. Arabic 

 has made but a small impression on the Javanese, as they are only half 

 Muhammadans. They write on palm-leaves or European and Chinese 

 paper. The great proportion of words are dissyllables ; there are a great 

 number of derivatives formed by inseparable particles. No treatise of 

 grammar existed, but they had a kind of vocabulary of synonyms in lieu 

 of a dictionary. The Koran and the Bible have been translated into 

 Javanese. 



" The Sundanese, Madurese, and Balinese differ so materially from 

 Javanese, though of the same stock, that they must be deemed separate lan- 

 guages, chiefly owing to the admixture of other languages. The Sundanese 

 is the language of the mountaineers of the West of Java, Muhammadans, 

 and is spoken by one-fourth of the population ; the letters of the alphabet 

 are fewer ; this was probably the ancient language of the island, and has 

 escaped the influence of foreign innovations ; an additional obsolete cha- 

 racter has been discovered on ancient and rude stones. The Bible is being 

 translated into Sundanese. 



" The Madurese is the language of the people 6f the island of Madura ; 

 and the immigrants from that island into Java, about 300,000 souls, and 

 Muhammadans. It has two dialects, the Madura proper and Sumanap, as 

 distinct as Spanish and Portuguese. Latham gives vocabularies of both, 

 and of Balinese. It is poorer and ruder than Javanese. Although the 

 arm of the sea is only ten miles in width, the two languages are scarcely 

 more alike than any other two of the Western Archipelago. The letters are 

 fewer in number ; it has a dialect of ceremony, and epistolary correspon- 

 dence, but Javanese is the language of business. 



" The Balinese is the sole language of the island of Bali, and has 

 spread by conquest to the island of Lompok ; it is spoken by half a million ; 

 rude and simple, yet more improved than the Sundanese and Madurese, and 

 supplied with a copious dialect of deference, borrowed from Sanskrit and 

 Javanese. In Bali writing is on the ]3alm-leaf only, as was the old and 

 obsolete practice of Java. The religion of the people is still Brahmanical 

 and Buddhist, but their faith is blended with the local customs of the 

 island, and the original tenets are much preverted by a semi-barbarous 

 people. Buddhists and Brahmans live in perfect harmony. It is asserted, 

 that there is as much difference between Balinese and its sister-language, 

 as there is betwixt French and Italian. The lower classes speak a very 

 distinct language indeed, such as was the language before the arrival of the 

 Javanese into Bali. Sanskrit MSS. are still found, as well as Kawi MSS., 

 which will be noted below. The British and Foreign Bible Society are in 



