6 THE MALAY PANTUN. 
“Tn a native household a new servant is to be engaged. 
“A candidate has offered his services, makes a good im- 
“»ression and is therefore accepted, say, with the following 
“words: ‘TZapt hanté salisung gardu, énya. “Akh, 
“modal, ‘Oh no!’ is the reply. As the first sentence, liter- 
“ally translated, means ‘but not a watch-house-mortar (for 
“rice-pounding),’ the question arises as to what has actually 
“been said to the man. 
“Under salisung gardu is to be understood the sahkokol, 
“i.e, a sounding-board ’ hanging in the watch house, where- 
“on the hours are struck and wherewith the watchmen also 
“give alarm-signals. Even then it has no meaning here. 
“But the meaning will become clear if one knows that the 
“catch-word or rhyme-word on sahkokol is sakongkol, 1.e. 
“* go:siping, and we therefore get the following: hénto sali- 
“sung gardu = hénto sakahkol = ulah sakongkol—‘ no gossip!’ 
“Not only in the presence of grown-up people are such 
“covert sayings used; they are addressed also to children. A 
“naughty child has repeatedly been bidden to obey, but re- 
“mains obstinate. At last the mother loses her temper and 
“exclaims angrily: ‘Ah, sia mah sok kokék aing mah; mun 
“kitu, méntak méntil hiris ngémbang bédil:’—‘ Well, you put 
“your will against mine; if you persist, it will be méntil hiris 
“ngémbang bédil.’ 
“Ménttl hirist means képokan,? and the naughty one is 
“made to understand matak kapok, in other words, ‘ It will 
“not be long before you will be kapok. i.e. you will come to 
“grief, which will so frighten you that you will not do it 
“again, and then it will be ngémbang bédil,2—obat, which 
“means here totobatan, ‘I shan’t do it again.’ 
“But the sindir are by no means always of a moral ten- 
“dency, and least of all in the allegorical language of courting, 
“wherein they play an important part and often show an un- 
“mistakable ingenuity. For example. 
(Puchung metre). 
Jaring panjang aya-na di-parahu 
To puguh kahayang 
Bengkel kawung chumawene 
Diyuk nangtung barang téda hénté ngonah. 
“Which means literally translated. 
‘A long net is lying in the ship, 
Foolish is the desire. : 
Tapping-peduncle of a virginal arenga-palm, 
Whether one sits or stands up, one does not enjoy one’s 
meal.’ 
1. ie. the hiris (a kind of pulse) is forming the first fruit after 
flowering. 
2. i.e, a very young fruit, 
3. ie, the flowering of a gun, 
Jour, Straits Branch 
