ON THE ALPHABETS OP THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 777 
comparatively energetic race of inhabitants, the discovery of letters 
would, most probably, have been made, as among some rude nations 
of Sumatra, had the civilization necessary not been precluded by 
the absence, as in the smaller islands, of the larger animals for la¬ 
bour, and of all the cereal grasses for food. 
The facility with which materials to write on are obtained in the 
countries occupied by the Malayan nations has, probably, contri¬ 
buted something towards the early discovery of the art of writing. 
The want of them, on the contrary,* is known to have proved a great 
obstacle to the progress of letters, and probably was to their inven¬ 
tion in temperate regions. The absence of a good material in an¬ 
cient Europe hindered the invention of printing, and its presence 
in China, no doubt contributed largely to its early discovery in that 
country. 
The Indian islanders write on palm leaves, which have received 
no other preparation than that of being dried, and cut in slips,—on 
the inner bark of trees, a little polished only by rubbing,—on slips 
of the bamboo cane, simply freed from its epidermis, and on stone, 
metal, and finally on paper. 
The palm leaf employed is that of the lontar, or borassus flabelli- 
formis. The Malay w'ord is most likely a corruption of two words, 
ron, a leaf in Javanese, and tal, the proper name of this palm in San¬ 
skrit. This seems corroborated by the Javanese name, which is 
written rontal. From the use of this word, it might, at first sight, 
be imagined that the practice of writing on palm leaves was derived 
from the Hindus. But it happens that this word, with many others 
wholly or partly Sanskrit, belongs to the ceremonial and factitious 
dialect of the Javanese language, a genuine native name kropyak, 
existing for it, in the ordinary one, so that no safe conclusion can 
be drawn from this etymology. 
The instrument for writing with on the palm leaf, bark, and the 
bamboo is an iron style, and their writing is, in fact, a rude engrav¬ 
ing, which is rendered legible by rubbing powdered charcoal over the 
surface which falls into the grooves, and is swept off the smooth sur¬ 
face. 
The Javanese alone understand the manufacture of a kind of pa¬ 
per. This is evidently a native art, and not borrowed from strang¬ 
ers, as is plain from the material, the process, and the name. The 
plant, in the Javanese language, is called gluga, Brouponotia pa- 
pyrifera, and the article itself daluwan changed into dalaman for 
