102 REV. FR. J. HOFFMANN, S.J. 



Near the raja's dam the barangu flower, 

 The flower fresh and fragrant, the barangu flower. 

 Though the jingles be by their very nature intransitive predicates, they may be 

 used transitively with a peculiar effect. When so used they can generally be rendered 

 into a foreign language only by circumlocutory explanations. By way of example 

 take the first two stanzas of a song warning young people against falling in love with 

 persons whom social exigencies prevent them from marrying : — 



Chetan tolarea' kota baam leon-leonaea 



Kota bam leon leon 

 Latar tolarea 1 nambar baam numbar-dumbaraea 

 Oke nagengea kota-baam leon-leonaea 



Kota baam leon-leon 

 Chimae nagengea nambar-baam nambar-dumbar aea 



Nambar-baam nambar-dumbar ? 



Nambar baam nambar-dumbar . 



Leon-leon describes the gentle, graceful waving in the breeze of some very elastic 

 tree tops. Nambar-dumbar describes an aimless and constant going about hither and 

 thither of people who shun steady work, as though it appeared that showing 

 themselves everywhere was the chief pleasure and business of their lives. Here both 

 jingles are used transitively. The stanzas may be literally rendered as follows : — 



Thou art gracefully waving the Kota flower of (i.e., plucked in) the upper hamlet, 



The Kota flower waving gracefully like a tree top in the breeze. 



Thou art aimlessly and incessantly hithering and thithering, i.e., taking or parad- 

 ing hither and thither the Nambar flower of [i.e., plucked in) the lower 

 hamlet, 



The Nambar flower aimlessly and incessantly hither and thither. 



For whose sake art thou gracefully waving the Kota flower of the upper hamlet, 



The Kota flower waving gracefully like a tree top in the breeze. 



For which one art thou aimlessly and incessantly parading hither and thither 

 the Nambar flower of the lower hamlet, 



The Nambar-flower aimlessly and incessantly hither and thither ! 



But this does not do full justice to the force of the transitive predicates. They 

 contain a distinct allusion to the predilection of young people for adorning their hair 

 with single flowers or with flowering twigs. When walking, these flowers move with 

 their heads, and it is this movement of the flowers which is here compared with the 

 gentle swaying of flexible tree-tops in the breeze. Hence the real meaning may freely 

 be rendered in some such way as the following : — 



Thou art walking about with a kota-flower of the upper hamlet waving on thy 



head like a tree- top swaying in the breeze, 

 Thou art incessantly moving about exhibiting in thy hair the nambar flower of 



the lower hamlet. 



