770 ON THE ALPHABETS OF THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
single point over a consonant expresses tlie nasal n following the 
vowel a inherent, or a consonant qualified by another vowel mark, 
two points express an aspirate following a vowel at the end of a 
word or syllable. 
In the Korinehi alphabet, there is no attempt at arrangement or 
classification. It begins with t and ends with r ; labials, palatals, na¬ 
sals and gutturals, being jumbled together in thorough disorder. 
The letters are formed by straight scratches, generally more ver¬ 
tical than those of the Batak, but in some instances also horizontal. 
It differs wholly from the latter. Thus a horizontal stroke in the Batak 
is the representative of p. and in the Korinehi of t. Three strokes 
declining downwards in the Batak represent the vowel i, but in the 
Korinehi the compound character ns. On the 'whole the Korinehi 
alphabet must be pronounced a very rude one. 
We come next to the Rejang, the alphabet of Lemba and Pasum- 
mah on the western side of Sumatra. This consists of 23 substan¬ 
tive characters. Among these are included the aspirate and the vow¬ 
el a. with four which are apparently syllabic compounds. The actual 
number of consonants, excluding the aspirate, is but 17, the palatal 
*d and *fc of the Javanese being wanting. Looking at the alphabet, 
however, the number of written characters is found to be 32, which 
arises from some of them being in duplicate and triplicate forms. 
The vowel a is, as usual, inherent in every consonant. This is ren¬ 
dered mute by an express orthographic mark as in Javanese, called 
mati or “ death.” The vowel marks are five in number viz., e., i. 
and u. with the dipthongs ai and au. The vowel o would seem not 
to belong to the language. 
In this alphabet, we have the first example of a classification of 
the consonants after the Hindu model. It begins, like the Dewana- 
gri, with the gutturals, accompanied by a corresponding nasal. The 
dentals and the palatals follow successively. Then comes the single 
sibilant ef the language, and the last class consists of the liquids rt. 
I. w. and y. The last letter of the alphabet is the substantive vow¬ 
el a. 
Eight letters of the Rejang alphabet, or at least some one form of 
them out of two or more, correspond with those of the Korinehi, 
so that it is certain, for the identity is generally complete, that the 
one nation must have borrowed from the other. Four and twenty 
of the Rejang substantive letters will still remain distinct, quite suf¬ 
ficient to prove it a distinct, and most probably an original alphabet. 
