THE MALAY PANTUN. 7 
“These lines, taken literally, form an entirely meaning- 
“less combination. The following is the solution. 
“Jering panjang could be expressed by one word mayang 
“a, drag-net” Under ‘lying in a ship’ one should under- 
“stand ‘in the house. Mayang is not used in this, but in 
“onother of its meanings, i.e. ‘the blossom of the betel- 
“palm ’—a marriageable maiden. 
“The second line contains a question to be rendered as 
“ follows: would it be too foolish to desire you? 
“Bengkel kawung chumawene again is a paraphrase. 
“Instead of bengkel, ‘ tapping-peduncle of a sugar-palm,’ one 
“should take the synonym j0nah, suggested by the rhyme- 
“word ngonah. Kawung chwmawene means ‘a virginal, Le. 
“not yet tapped Arenga saccharifera,’ the word chumawene, 
“<to be a virgin,’ being a form of chawene ‘virgin. Now, 
“as an incarnation of Nyi Pohachi Sanghyang Sérv, the 
“primitive goddess of agriculture, the kawung-palm is con- 
“sidered as a female being, who from earliest youth, until 
“the palmwine-tapper marries her when she is grown up, is 
“deemed to go through all stages of development from a little 
“girl to a marriageable maid.’ Bengkel kawung chumawene 
“therefore means: ‘a just budding virgin.’ 
“The last line does not need further explanation, and it 
“will be clear that the whole is a lover’s entreaty. 
“ However, stndir are rarely as intricate as the above. 
“The plainness of the following lampoon on divorced women, 
“leaves nothing to be desired: 
“Anak kuda susurian 
“Tikait tali kanchana 
“Aya rangda sosorian 
“ Ngarébut ost chalana.’* 
In the texts edited by Mr. Pleyte sindir in versified form 
are not used as pantun are used in a Malay Hikayat, i.e. to form 
dialogues and so on, but occur apparently mixed up with the blank 
verse, which have the same metre as the last verse quoted above. 
The puchung-metre of the first sindir-verse given above is a four- 
lined one of the different metres at the Sundanese poet’s disposal, 
already referred to. Whether stndir-verses occur also in metres 
having more than four lines, Mr. Plevte does not say, though else- 
where he speaks of sindir n as ‘ four-lined love-songs.’ 
1. Cp, C. Pleyte Jockang sadap in Bijdragen tot Taal-Land en 
Volkenk. v. Ned. Indie, 7 volgr, dl V, p. 591. 
2. A literal Malay translation would be 
Anak kuda bérbulu téngkok 
Térkait tali kénchana, 
Ada janda tersénywm-sényum 
Mérébut isi chélana. 
R. A. Soc., No. 85, 1922. 
