28 
A NANING KECTTAL. 
Sa-Ulit Pulau Percha 
Sa-lcmbang Tanah Melayu 
there are two accented syllables in each line; in the lines 
Tempat sesap berjerdmian, 
Tern pat tunggul berpemurasan 
there are three ; and there are four in the lines 
Tempat sidlang berlantak best, 
Tempat kemuntong membxlang bungkur. 
I noticed in Ungkai Li silt's recitation of the verses that tha 
accented syllables were strongly emphasized and that a distinct 
caesura was made in each line (in the lines containing three or 
four accented syllables it occurred after the word containing the 
second). The effect produced was a rhythmic recitative, slightly 
reminiscent of an intoned Psalm. In the lines with four beats it 
was observable that the second and fourth were much more em- 
phatic than the first and third, and in the lines with three beats 
that the second and third were much more emphatic than the first. 
Further examination of the verses shows that in each case the most 
important words in the sentence are -so placed that the accentual 
beat falls inevitably upon them, and they are lengthened in pro- 
nunciation, or pronounced with greater force, by a natural union of 
sense and rhythm. 
It would, perhaps, be true to say that it is whole words (or 
word-roots), rather than syllables, that are accented, and that in 
each line — whatever its length — there are two key-words that both 
give its meaning and sustain the principal accentual beats. 
For example, in the specimen lines already quoted 
Tempat sesap ber jeramian, 
Tempat tunggul ber pemarasan 
Tempat sialang berlantak best, 
Tempat kemuntong membilang bungkur, 
it is the eight underlined words 
. clearing stubble. 
. stumps severing 
. hiving -trees iron 
.irasps nodes. . 
that are chiefly stressed in recitation, just as it is these words that 
convey — in the elliptical or ‘ telegraphic ’ Malay idiom — the essen- 
tial meaning of the lines. The metrical system is, in fact, bound 
up with the two main principles of Malay composition, balance 
and antithesis, on which a most interesting note will be found in 
Dr. Winstedt’s Malay Grammar. 
There is little doubt, I think, that this composition (like the 
metrical passages in Malay romances such as Seri Pama or Malim 
Deman) was originally intended for singing or recitative, with a 
beat of the drum ( rebana ), as in pantun singing, to mark each 
accented word. 
Jour. Straits Branch 
