THE MALAY PANTUN. 5 
history of old times, half sung, half recited by the bard, the tukang 
pantun, to the accompaniment of a sort of violin (tarawangsa) or 
lute (kachapt). Mr. C. Pleyte has edited some of these Sundanese 
pantun with their different versions, together with a synopsis, a 
partial translation and a glossary.* Although these tales are taken 
mostly from legends or history of old times, they resemble the 
Malay pénglipor lara tale, being also interspersed with blank verse 
and sindir. 
The blank verse Mr, Pleyte calls purwakantt, a Javanese word 
which according to the dictionary means “a verse or verses, being 
a combination of words having the same sound, which sometimes 
are not much more than jingling nonsense.” ‘These blank verse, 
often roughly humoristic, describe the proceedings of a festival, 
‘the dress of a man or woman, their way of walking or journeying 
and so on and they are often repeated. Without being quite identi- 
cal with the blank verse of the Malay pénglipor lara tale, they have 
the same metre and quaintly resemble them in their way of being 
used. An attempt at a translation would ‘be pretty hopeless for 
anybody but a Rabelais; they abound in onomatopoeics and syn- 
eyes, in which the Sundanese language is exceedingly rich. 
As regards the sindir appearing in the pantun edited by him, 
Mr. Pleyte in the preface to the glossary writes as follows: 
“To Mr. J. Knebel . . . ‘is due the credit of having 
“pointed out the nature of the Javanese wangsallan, 1.e. 
“charades, of which the beginning lines give the rhyme-word 
“for the solution given in the following lines. So too, many 
“of sindir, are something more than simple rhymes, which 
“they are always represented to be. They contain hidden 
“warnings, lessons of life, admonitions and so on clad in the 
“garment of a play upon words or a pun, sometimes more, 
“sometimes less ingenious, as will be seen from the examples 
“in the text. : 
“ Attention ought to be drawn to this, not only because 
“without such knowledge some passages in the pantun would 
“remain unintelligible, but also because the sindir are so close- 
“ly interwoven with daily conversation, that a fairly animated 
colloquy seldom passes without the use of these puns, which 
“are understood everywhere. They season discourse as quota- 
“tions season ours, and for an intimate chat one ought to 
“know at least some of them. - Also for easy intercourse with 
my __ the kampong people they are indispensable, as they are the 
“common property of the chachah, the common people, as 
“well as of the highest educated class. 
“A few examples may serve as dinehecticne, 
ft , Batavia, 1906, 1910 21911 > ini the Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal, 
Land en Volker Kunde, Part XLIX, afl. 152, and in Verhandelingen van: 
het Bataviaasch genootschap van Kunsten en Wetensehapen, Part 
LVIII. 
R. A. Soc., No. 85, 1922. 
