THE MALAY PANTUN. 11 
glance over any collection of pantuns will show. The veiled and 
unveiled thought also occurs in many Indian selokas. As regards 
the rhyme the Malays seem to be rather careless, and a pantun 
may sometimes have the same rhyme in all four lines: 
Masok hutan bawa sénapang Ada satu panglima garang 
Héndak bédil anak béruang. Janggut panjang misat bércha- 
Enche’ laksana binatang kong- bang. 
kang Pokok pisang boleh tuan tébang 
Képala di-tundok chélah kang- Ka-pada sahaya jangan d1-cha- 
kang." dang.” 
Marsden, Crawiord and others make no distinction between 
pantun and séloka. J. J. de Hollander, however, remarks that in 
Malay writings a distinction is made and quotes a passage from 
the Hikayat Shah Mardan or Indéra Jaya:—‘ ségala dayang pun 
bérpantun dan bérséloka.’”’ In the Hikayat Hang Tuah we are 
told of Hang Tuah and his friends, when they were in the for- 
bidden park of the Batara of Ménjapahit:—“ maka ia dudok.... 
bérsénda, bérnyanyi dan bérpantun dan bérséloka bérbagar-bagar 
ragam-nya.’ The word pantun has in the Hikayat Hang Tuah a 
double meaning: it is used several times for such a proverbial say- 
ing as pagar makan padi, as pointed out by Dr. Winstedt in his 
preface to ““ Pantun Mélayu,” and it is used also for the quatrain. 
In my collection of pantuns I find the following quatrains :— 
Sabar sunggoh Raja Kuantan, | 
Méngikut pérang dari kuala, 
Adinda tuan sa-pantun intan, 
Tidak térnilaa yang punya harga. 
Panah mémanah Raja Andoman, 
Panah lalu ka-ségara. 
Adinda sa-pantun sharbat minuman, 
Sa-puloh tahun ta hilang rasa. 
Ya Galoh Raden di-pinang, 
Tempat raja dari Patan; 
Tuan sa-pantun si-pohon pisang, 
Kawan-nya banyak kanan dan kiri. 
These three quatrains belong to an inconiplete series of fan- 
tuns of the kind called Alaf-ba-ta. The series was procured from 
a Chinese collector and probably hails from Malacca. In these 
quatrains the word pantun or sa-pantun is used in place of the lak- 
sana or sd-umpama of modern times. Is it possible that the 
séloka, either with the alternate or the fourfold rhyme, existed long 
ago and that those quatrains containing a pantun or simile in the 
first two lines have in course of time received the name pantun in 
1. Pantun Melayu No, 970, 
2. ib. No. 1021. Compare further the pantuns in ‘‘Pelandok Jenaka.’’ 
R. A. Soc,, No. 85, 1922. 
