yalentyn's DESCRIPTION OF MALACCA. 53 



will be at a loss, it being used and understood in Persia, nay 

 even beyond that country on that side, and also as far as the 

 Philippines. 



And if you don't understand this language, you are considered 

 a very badly educated man in the East, whilst the Malays are 

 accustomed to study it, trying their utmost to enlarge their know- 

 ledge of it and to learn also the Arabic ; even some among them 

 the Persian language too, and those who are more studious still 

 strive to obtain the knowledge of the Sanskrit, the mother-language 

 of most of the idioms in the East. 



The Malay is spoken nowhere so correctly and so purely as 

 here, though there is still a great difference between the Court 

 language and that of the lower class. The language spoken by the 

 courtiers is so swelling, so interlarded with Arabic (to show their 

 erudition in that language ), and differs so much from the common 

 pure language (the former being the adulterated language), 

 since every nation, that speaks this common or low Malay, has 

 mixed some words of their own language with it, that it would not 

 be understood by the common people, for which reason it is used 

 only by princes, courtiers and priests, and therefore considered as 

 the language of scholars. It is by nature a very pleasant, sweet, 

 charming, and yet a very powerful language to express yourself 

 in. A lot of works written in that language, already mentioned by 

 us before, and several fine songs, in which they have transmitted 

 many events of past times, show this plainly. 



The Malay men are generally dressed in a pair of trousers, with 

 a broad blue, red or green garment, worn as a blouse, and a turban 

 rolled round the head. 



They are commonly of a very lively nature, but they always 

 keep open a back door and are not easily to be caught, while they 

 are witty and of great self-conceit. 



I do not know another nation in the Indies more cunning than 

 the Malays and the natives of Macassar, for which reason they are 

 not much to be relied upon. 



The women's dress is almost the same as that of other Indian 

 women, or like that of the Javanese women, and consists in a lono- 

 gown, hanging down to their feet and very often also fastened 

 above the bosom under the arms, the upper part of the body being 

 naked. They tie up their hair in a bundle at the back of their 

 head, though some have another hair-dress, almost the same as that 

 of the Creoles. These women too are generally of a more exalted 



