MALAY LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 99 
2 vols. : : Dictionnaire francais-Malais, ib., 1880, 2 vols.: J. J: 
ps HoLLaNDER, Handleiding bij de beoefening der Naleiscne fal 
en letterkunde, ‘Breda, 1882; J. Pruswaprut, Aaleische Spraak- 
kunst; Hague, 1866; and Whileiseh-Holiandsch Woordenboek, 
Aznsterdam, 1875. The printing of Von Dewatt’s Dictionary, 
edited by H. N.VAN DER TuuK, is stillin progress at Batavia. 
Literature.—There are two kinds of Malay popt ular litera- 
ture—the one in Prose, the other in poetry. The former com- 
prises the prov erbs, the latter the “‘ pantuns.” ‘‘ Agriculture, 
hunting, fishing, boating, and wood-craft are the oecupations 
or accomplishments which furnish most of the illustrations. 
and the number ot beasts, birds , fishes, and plants named in a 
collection of Malay proverbs al be found to be considerable” 
(W. E. Maxwein, MHalay Proverbs). H.C. Kiinxert, pub- 
lished a collection in the Aijdragen tot de taalkunde van N. I. 
(Journal of the Asiatic Society of the Hague) for 1866, pp. 39 
-87. Seealso J. Hasse on the Menangkabo proverbs, in 
vols. xxv. and xxvi. of the Batavian Tijdschrift, and FavreE’s 
Dictionnaire Malais-#rancais, passin. The pantuns are im- 
provised poems, ¢ cenerally (though not necessarily) of four 
lines, in which the first and third and the second and fourth 
rhyme. They are mostly love a and their chief peculi- 
arity is that the meaning intended to be conveyed is expressed 
in the second couplet, ‘wherea the first contains a simile or 
distant allusion to the second, or often has, beyond the oS 
no connexion with the second at all. The Malays are fond of 
reciting such rhymes “in alternate contest for “several hours, 
the preceding pantun fur nishing the catchword to that which 
follows, until one of the parties be silenced or vanquished.” 
See T. J. Newsonp, Account of the British Settlements in the 
Straits of Malacca, vol. ii. 346; Kirxert in the Bijdragen for 
1868, pp 309-70; L. K. Harmsren in the: Tijdschrift, vol. 
xxi. pp. 480-533 (Menangkabo). If the Malays have kept 
entirely aloof from the influences of Islam in this the most 
characteristic part of their literature, they have almost equally 
preserved their independence in the other departments. Not 
that this may be cansidencd entirely to their credit; for, if 
they had endeavoured to infuse into their writings some of the 
spirit of Arabic and Persian histori logt aphy, poetry, and fiction, 
it could not but have benefited the character of their own liter- 
