100 MALAY LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 
ary productions. As it is their histories and chronicles are a 
strange motley of truth and fiction; their poems and novels 
lack coherence and imagination, and are singularly monoton- 
ous and devoid of that spirit of chivalry which pervades the 
corresponding branches of literature among the leading na- 
tions of Islam. As Malay copyists are much given to making 
arbitrary changes, it happens that no two MSS. agree, and 
that of many a popular work different recensions exist, which, 
moreover, often go by diferent names. This circumstance 
greatly tends to increase the difficulties of editing Malay texts. 
W orks on specially Mohammedan subjects (theology, law, ethics, 
_ mysticism) are of course only imitations of Arabic or Persian 
originals ; there are also numerous novels and poems treating 
of purely Mohammedan legends. But not only is there trace- 
able in many of these a slight undercurrent of Hinduism and 
even pre-Hinduisin; the Malays possess also, and indiscriminate- 
ly read along with their Mohammedan books, quite as many 
works of fiction of purely Hindu origin. The want, however, 
of political cohesion, and of a national spirit among tribes so 
scattered asthe Malays are, which could have favoured the 
growth of a national epic or national songs, sufficiently ac- 
counts for the absence from their literature of any productions 
of this class, such as exist in Bugiand Macassar literature. 
The most popular of their poetical productions are the Sha%r 
Ken Tambuhan, Shair Bidasari, Shair Jauhar Mankam and 
Shar Abdwlmulik, all of which have been printed. Among 
the prose works there are various collections of local laws and 
customs (undang-undang), chronicles (such as the Sajarat ma- 
layu), books on ethics (the best are the Makota sagala raja-ra- 
ja, and the Bustanw’ssalatin, and a very large number of works 
of fiction and legendary lore, some of which possess much des- 
criptive power. They all bear the title Hikayat, and the fol- 
lowing are the best-known: H. Hang Tuah, H. Hamzah, H. 
Isma Yatim, H. Jumjumah, H. Bakhtiyar (Sadah Bakhtin, 
Gholam), H. Simiskin, H. Sultan Ibrahim, H. Sri Rama, H. 
Pandawa lima. Several of these and many other works not 
mentioned here have appeared in print (with or without trans- 
lation) chiefly in Holland, Batavia, and Singapore, and extracts 
have been given in the various Malay chrestomathies by 
Dutavrier, De HottaAnper, Niemann, Van DER TuUK, GRa- 
