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KOTICES OF LOMBOK 10 i 
About a week ago N&khoda Muda arrived here in person bringing-a 
letter and certificates from Mr. King, a declaration in Malay un¬ 
der the seals of the Raja and his son, the same in Balinese, and,—■ 
what I value as more curious than all the rest—an extract from the 
written code of civil laws or Digdmd of Lombok, certified by the 
two Edd Ge’de's or chief Brahmans, who are the depositories of law 
and the highest judges of the kingdom. I have always regarded Ba¬ 
li and Lombok (the two first in the remarkable drain of Islands 
stretching eastward from Java to New Holland) with great interest, 
for there to this day what may be called the ancient history of the 
Malayan Archipelago is repeated, the ancient life is seen in full acti¬ 
vity. Elsewhere Hinduism is extinct as a principle of faith and ac¬ 
tion, having been supplanted by Islamism, and is only to be traced, 
though largely, in the languages—of which some have more words 
of Sanscrit origin than of the old Malayan stock, and all more than 
- * ''•v 
of the modern Arabic engraftments,—in architectural remains (abun¬ 
dant in Java and scanty elsewhere) and in traditions, customs and li¬ 
terature. In Bali and Lombok Hindu princes still reign. Castes 
are as distinctly, perhaps more distinctly marked than in India; the 
sacred Brahmans minister in the temples and expound the law's. It 
is as if instead of a mere, dead, material Pompeii disentombed, we had 
the religion, laws, language and manners of ancient Italy preserved 
in full life in Sicily. Of Ball -we may read in Raffles’ Java, Crawford’s 
Indian Archipelago and other works. Of Lombok neither there nor 
elsewhere could I ever get any information. I was therefore well 
pleased when a door was thus opened through which I might obtain 
some insight into its condition. I have not, after all, been able to ob¬ 
tain any full or precise information. Of what little I gathered I shall 
note a few particulars. 
The two writings in the Balinese character are scratched with 
knives on lontar leaves, and this is the material on which their anci¬ 
ent laws are preserved, and which, to this day, is exclusively used in 
all their writings. In Java the palm leaf has long been superseded 
by paper. 
The proper name of the island is Seldparan, The Bugis call it 
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