768 ON THE ALPHABETS OP THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
singular enough that a nation of cannibals should possess the know¬ 
ledge of letters. There was assuredly nothing of the kind in Eu¬ 
rope, or Continental Asia, until long after men had ceased to eat 
each other. 
The substantive characters of the Batak alphabet are the same as 
those of the Javanese, with the exception of the letter cand the pa¬ 
latals *d and 't which it wants. Among these are not only reckon¬ 
ed a, as in Javanese, but also i and u, so that the whole number 
including the aspirate, which is reckoned among them, is no less 
than 20. But the real number of the consonants, omitting the as¬ 
pirate, is but 16. 
The vowel marks are only four representing e. i. o. and u. They 
are used with the consonants as in the Javanese alphabet, but they 
are not as in that, applied to the vowel a nor to the others included 
among the substantive letters.* As in Javanese, every consonant is 
a syllable ending in the inherent a, but I can discover no other 
contrivance for eliding this vowel, except its supercession by the ap¬ 
plication of a vowel mark.f If this be the case, every word or syl¬ 
lable must begin, either with a consonant, or one of the three vowels 
a, e. i. or u, and end in a vowel or the nasal h for which the alpha¬ 
bet has a peculiar mark. 
The Batak alphabet does not, like some others of the Archipela¬ 
go, follow the organic classification of the Hindu alphabets, but it is 
not, in this respect, wholly arbitrary, like that of Java, for it has a 
peculiar arrangement of its own. It begins with the vowel a, and 
ends with i, and u. The aspirate immediately follows the letter a. 
Then come in succession two dentals d and t, two liquids r and 1, three 
labials b. p. ami w, two palatals y. and j. and then the sibilants. J 
Mr. Marsden would appear to think that the existence of the me¬ 
trical arrangement of the Sanskrit alphabet was at one time general 
over all the alphabets of the Archipelago, and although he admits 
the difficulty of proving any filiation, considers that all of them were 
taken from the Hindus. But as there is no resemblance between 
* The accents are used with all the letters except i and u, 
(Wilier, Tijd. v. N. I. viii p. 390 .)—Ed. 
■f The pengolet \ performs the office of suppressing the o. (Wilier, ubi 
sup.) —Ed. 
} It is so in the arrangement given by Marsden (Hist. Sum. p. 202) but 
he adds that “ it docs not appear that any determinate order is observed in 
the arrangement of the alphabet, which is found to vary more or less in 
every specimen.” Mr, Willer’s arrangement differs from Marsden’s.—E d. 
