142 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



in ;M'riting both Malay and Sundanese, and the beautiful, 

 ititeresting well-known Javan symbols for its own language. 

 The Lam pong characters have no resemblance to either of 

 them, but Mf: Keane holds .that they are based on the Devana- 

 gari, as he affirms the Javanese to be also. The letters of 

 wliich a specimen is given on the opposite page are mostly 

 either horizontal lines, or lines meeting each other at acute 

 angles, with marks and dots above and below the line, to form 

 nineteen characters, representing the sounds ka, ga, gna, pa, ba, 

 ma, ta, da, na, tya, dya, nya, ya, a, la, ra, sa, wa, cha (rough). 

 Marks and hooks above and below the letters are used to 

 indicate the vowel sounds and the addition of n and ng, and 

 a sign to indicate the dropping of the final vocable, so as to 

 express the consonant, as " Ka tancla mat " (" dead sign ") in- 

 dicates K. At first, with only a native teacher, scarcely half 

 of whose discourse I could comprehend, the acquisition of the 

 language seemed very difficult; but, having the key given, it 

 was far easier to acquire than it looked. 



The margas are the old native districts (one might almost 

 call them regencies) into which the country was originally 

 divided, each owning its own. independence. The Govern- 

 ment, in parcelling out the country for administrative pur- 

 poses, has retained as much as possible the boundaries of the 

 marga intact, as each had often its own peculiar customs, to 

 which the people adhere with hereditary tenacity. In the old 

 days each marga, and possibly each kampong (village) had a 

 copy of its oondang-oondang, or laws, written on bamboo-stems, 

 or on lontar (Borassus) palm leaves, which were preserved 

 as heirlooms from generation to generation, till eaten up by a 

 small boring beetle — which can in a very short time reduce the 

 stoutest bamboo to powder if it is not looked after — or till 

 destroyed in the fires by which every village has been periodi- 

 cally wiped out, when it would be reinscribed from the memory 

 of some old villager, and again transmitted. In very rare cases 

 only would the bamboo record be applied to, for in every vil- 

 lage there was always some one, as now, who knew its con- 

 tents with perfect accuracy, to whom it had been taught Avhen 

 a child by his father, as he in like manner had been taught by 

 his; so that when a case arose in which the adat (custom) was 

 in question, recourse would be had to the living repository, as 



