118 



An Essay on Early Relations 



[No. 37, 



their source being the Javanese, Keling ; and, more recently, the 

 Arabic language. The various narratives concerning the five Pan- 

 clavas, so famous in Hindu story, are adverted to by Dr. Ley den, 

 as common in Malaya, and giving a tolerably correct outline of 

 the story. This remark is of consequence, in comparison hereafter 

 with Raffles' History of Java. Dr. Leyden says, " when characters 

 familiar in Sanscrit mythology are introduced into the Malay le- 

 gends their adventures are generally transferred, by the Malays, 

 to the interior of Java ; and even Arabian characters are often re- 

 presented as performing their adventures in the Malay countries." 

 They seem to have taken the different chapters of the Mahabharat, 

 and to have made a distinct tale of each one : they have also the 

 story of Yicramaditya, and some translated dramas, from the Ka- 

 ling or Telugu language. 



Dr. Leyden' s brief notice of the Java or Javanese language, 

 need not to be dwelt on ; because of the higher, and more speci- 

 fic authority of Sir T. Raffles. The following sentence may ne- 

 vertheless be quoted: " The literature of the Javanese is similar 

 to that of the Malays to which it seems to have given origin. 

 Their Kuggawins, or Cheritras, contain their mythology, and the ad- 

 ventures of their ancient heroes, and exhibit them in a style, which 

 has no iu considerable resemblance to that of the Hindu Puranas. 



The Batta language Dr. L. considers to be the most ancient one 

 ^ . in Sumatra. He notices a coincidence in 



the account by* Herodotus, B. C. 500, that 

 the Paday or Padaioi eat raw flesh ; and their relations also when 

 old ; which it seems from their own confession the Battas do. 

 He notices the interchangeability of the letters b and p ; the 

 correspondence indicates identity. He adds ' neither is it more 

 ' incredible that the Battas should eat human flesh, as a religious 

 £ ceremony, than that anthropophagy should be practised, by the 

 ' class of mendicants termed Agora Panth in Bengal, and other 

 ' parts of India, which is a fact that cannot easily be called in 

 4 question. It is surprising that this singular custom has received 

 ' so little investigation.' Again ' in many of the Batta customs 

 ' considerable similarity to those of the JN~airs of Malabar may be 

 ' traced ; as in the law of inheritance ; according to which it is 

 ' not the son. but the nephew,, that succeeds.' 



