432 A DICTIONARY SUNDANESE 



Saséngkédan, a diagonal piece of wood in carpentry. A prop set diagonally in a post 

 to support a horizontal beara. See Sengkéd. 



Sasuganan, to try your lack. Per adventure. Nothing like trying. 



Sat, Arabic, essence, substance; person , sect, caste. Zat, Marsden 140. 



Sa tak, two hundred; the number 200. Satak in ancient method of counting Chinese 

 cash, is equal to eight Dutch doits of the present time, or as the Sunda people 

 call that amount Sa-wang. At the present time these Chinese cash are still in 

 use on Bali and Lombok , and Satak there now-a-days means a string of 200 

 Pichis , which is of the val ue of one guilder copper money. Singapore Journal, 1851, 

 vol. 5, page 460. At pages 86/87 of the work „Het eiland Bali en de Balinezen, 

 door den Hoogleeraar Lauts — 1848" we learn that the traders on Bali speak of 

 Atak , Bungkus , and Peku to designate different quantities of Chinese pichis or cash. 

 These cashand Spanish Dollars are the only kinds of money met with on Bali, The 

 cash are still imported from China and yield a good profit to the trader. 200 pichis 

 are considered as having the value of one guilder silver. The Spanish dollar varies 

 in value from 600 to 700 pichis. 200 pichis are strung together on a rope and are 

 called Sa-atak; five such ropes, with their ends tied together, and thus containing 

 1000 pichis, form Sa-hungkiis, or one bundie. Fifty ataks or 10,000 pichis put up 

 in a bag make Sa-peku. Thus Sa-atak is equal to one guilder silver, Sa-bung- 

 kus to five guilders, and Sa-peku to fifty guilders silver. Considerable discrepancy 

 thus exists between the values attributed on the present Bali , and in ancient Sunda 

 to these designations. The ancient Sunda satak being said to amount to only eight 

 Dutch doits, whereas the present Satak on Bali has the value of one guilder silver, 

 and thus at least 120 Dutch doits. Perhaps the rude Sunda people in early times, 

 before they got the Chinese pichis, counted with small stones or pebbles, which Mas 

 also implies (see Mas in voce), as some rude Indians count with cowry shells. The 

 Chinese metal cash, base as it is, may thus have been an innovation , in the 

 course of the progress of trade , in which we know that the Chinese largely partici- 

 pated. That the people of the Archipelago formerly counted with stones may almost 

 be inferred from One in Malay being expressed by Satu or Sa-ivatu, one stone, and 

 in Sunda by Sahiji or Siji , one seed. 



Saténg, one half, appears to be the short for Sa-téngah. Sa-wang saténg , a wang and 

 one half =12 doits. 



Saténg' ah, half, one half. Geus saténgah béak, it is half done. 



Satia, is the burning of a wife on Bali, who , from a stage constructed for the purpose, 

 throws herself into the fire where her husband's body is being burnt, after she has 

 krissed herself. Satia is truth, faithfulness; the wife who dies in this way , is called 

 Satia Waii , true and faithful , who has responded to all her duty towards her hus- 

 band. Friederich, Bat. Trans., vol. 23, page 10. This is probably the same word 

 which has become in Sunda Sacha, which see, and is derived from Satya, C. 699, 



