86 MALAY PROVERBS, 



" Jawi Perdnakan" without finding an argument clenched, 

 or an adversary answered by some well known " i bar at " (pro- 

 verb), or " pempamaati" (similitude), a dictum of some forgotten 

 sage from which there is no appeal. 



To any one studying the language, Malay proverbs are ex- 

 tremely useful, not only because they contain many homely 

 words and phrases not usually to be met with in books, but 

 also as examples of the art of putting" ideas into very few 

 words, in which the Malays excel ; but which the student, whose 

 thoughts will run in a European mould, finds it so difficult to 

 acquire. Newbold, in his " Political and Statistical account of 

 the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca/'' which though 

 published as long ago as 1839, is still by far the most valuable 

 authority on Malay subjects in the English language, gives 

 (vol. II, p. 335.) translations of a few Malay proverbs, but with 

 this exception I am not aware that any collection in our lan- 

 guage has hitherto been printed. 



I began to collect Malay proverbs in 1871 while resi- 

 ding in Province Wellesley, where there is a large Malay popu- 

 lation. The Malay and French dictionary of l'Abbe Favre, which 

 was published in 1875, fell into my hands early last year, and 

 I then found that I had been anticipated in my researches, not 

 only by the learned and reverend author, but also by M. 

 Klinkert, a Dutch gentleman, who, as early as 1863, published 

 a collection of 183 Malay proverbs with a preface and notes in 

 the Dutch language. M. Favre, in his preface, acknowledges 

 his obligations to M. Klinkert' s work in the following passage : 

 i( C'est ainsi M. Klinkert qui, dans un ouvrag^ special, nous 

 a servi a completer notre collection de proverbes Malais, ex- 

 traits partiellement de divers auteurs : nous lui devons aussi 

 les enigmes." The only copy of M. Klinkert's book which 

 I have seen, a thin pimphlet of 51 pages, does not con- 

 tain the enig'mas mentioned in the foregoing quotation. It 

 is probable therefore that later and more complete editions exist. 

 In the very interesting and modest introduction which pre- 

 cedes M. Klinkert's collection of Mala}' proverbs, the author 

 slates that they are taken partly from the works of Abdullah bin 

 Abdul Kadir Munshi, especially from his " Hikayat Abdullah" 

 and his " Pelayaran," and partly, but more rarely, from other 

 " Hikayat/' from native " pan tun ," and from the lips of Malays 

 themselves. For many proverbs in the collection he acknow- 

 ledges his indebtedness to the late Mr. Keasberry of Singapore, 

 " a man who, from his youth until he became an old man, 

 " studied the Malays and their language, and who had the ad- 



