10 THE MALAY PANTUN. 
The use of verse, especially of some well-known epigramma- 
tical sloka, to illustrate one’s words, is of course common in Indian 
literature and probably in daily conversation, but in the king’s re- 
ply to Shakuntala, if correctly translated, we have an ex tempore 
improvisation to suit the occasion. 
With Sanskrit we are in India, and India of course has great- 
ly influenced the Malay language and literature. “ Negéri Kéling,” 
the country of the dark people of the Kalingas, mentioned 
in the Ramayana and Mahabharata as living on the East-coast of 
the Indian peninsula, would seem to be the source of this influence. 
Tamil is a Dravidian, non-Aryan language, but has been in- 
fluenced largely by Sanskrit. ‘The Ramayana, the Mahabharata, 
the Panchatantra have been translated into Tamil. From the Tamil | 
translation of the Ramayana the Malay Hikayat Séri Rama is 
derived. Speaking of the different kinds of Tamil poetry, the Abbe 
Dubois’ mentions the “ Padam,” which corresponds to strophe, 
stanza or couplet. The “ Padam” includes not only odes in 
honour of gods, princes and great personages, but also obscene and 
amorous ditties, sprightly dialogues between gods and goddesses 
and similar compositions. Dubois? further mentions Slokas or 
stanzas, and gives translations of a number of “niti-slokas” or 
moral stanzas, familiar to all educated Hindus. “ They are written 
in Sanskrit-verse, but as this classical language is not understood 
by many people, each sloka is accompanied by a literal translation 
in the vulgar tongue. The Hindoos take great delight in intro- 
ducing these slokas into their ordinary conversation.” Many of 
these ‘slokas, of which Dubois gives a prose-translation, have in 
their first part a picture or saying, whose moral is given in the 
last part. For instance. 
“Vhen one sees blades of Dharba-grass* on white-ant-heaps, 
one can tell at once that snakes are there. So when one sees 
anybody frequenting the company of wicked men, one may 
feel sure that he is as wicked as they.” 
Perhaps Sanskrit scholars can tell us how it came that the word 
sloka, which appears to have been formerly the name of a metre 
or stanza, later came to mean an epigram, 
The Malays, too, know the word séloka. According to Wilkin- 
son’s dictionary it means “rhyme, especially when humorous; 
ironical or satirical poetry when not in the form of the pantun. » 
A pantun, according to the same dictionary, is a “ quatrain, the 
first line of which rhymes with the third, and the second with the 
fourth”? Mr. Wilkinson has further laid down the principle of 
assonance and that of the veiled and unveiled thought referred to 
above. That the principle of assonance is not always kept, a 
1. Abbe J. A. Dubois, Hindu Manners, Custom and Ceremonies, 3rd 
ed., Oxford, 1906, p. 619. 
2. Tae chamten XXII, page 392 et seq, and chapter XXIII, page 
474 et seq. 
3. The sacred grass, Poa cynosuroides, essential in all sacrifices. 
Jour. Straits Branch 
