142 



A NATr/iAU.ST'S WAXRERIXdS 



in writing both Malay and 8nTi(laiicsp. awl tlie beiintiiiil, 

 iiit^j'cstiu^ well-knoivii Javan spnbols for its own IjintjnagR. 

 The LampunjLij chtiraeku'S have uo reseinbhuu'e to eiMior of 

 them, lilt Mr. Kouiie holds that they are based on the I>evaim- 

 gari, m he aftirais the Javanese to be also. The lettei-s of 

 wliich a specimen is given on the opposite pa«z:o are mostly 

 either horizoutul lines, or lines meeting eaeh other at aeiife 

 angles, with marks and dots above and below the line,t4> form 

 iiLueteeii characters, representing the sounds ku, ga. gna, pa, ba» 

 ma, ta, da, na, tya, dya* nya, ya, a, la, ra, sa, wa, cha {rough). 

 ^Larks and hooks above and below the letters are used to 

 indicate the vowel soutuIs and the addition of n and and 

 a sign to indiciite the dropping of the final vocable, so as ti> 

 express the consonant, as " Ka fcuukt ?/i«^"("dead sign ") in- 

 dicates K. At first, with only a native teacher, scarcely half 

 of whose discourse 1 could comprehend, the acfiuisition of the 

 language seemed very diHicult; but, having the key given, it 

 wjts tar easier to accjuire than it looked. 



The niargas are the old native districjts (one might almost 

 call them regencies) into which the country was originally 

 divided, each owning its own independence. The Govera- 

 •nient, in ])arcelling out the country for administrative pur- 

 Sposes, hm ret^iined as much as possible the boundaries of the 

 (marga intact, as each had often its own peculiar enstonis, to 

 which the people adhere with hereditary tenacity. In the old 

 "days each marga» and possibly each kampong (village) had a 

 copy of its oondang-ooiidangt or laws, written on bam boo- stems, 

 or on lontar {BoraBsm) palm leaves, which were preservcil 

 as heirlooms from generation to generation, till eaten up by a 

 small boring beetle — ^which cjin in a very short time reduce tho 

 stoutest bamboo to powder if it is not looked after— or till 

 destroyed in the fires by which every village has been period i- 

 eally wiped out, when it would be reinscribod from the memory 

 of some ohi vilhigcr,an<l again transmitted. In very rare cases 

 only would the bamboo record be applied to, tVir in every vil- 

 lage there was always some one, as uuw, who knew its con- 

 tents with perfect accuracy, to whom it had been taught wJien 

 u child by his father^as he iu like manner had lieen taught by 

 his; so that when a ca^e arose in which tho adat (custom) was 

 in rjucstiun, recourse would be had tu the living repository, as 



