Apa guna passang palita,
Kallo tidah dangan sumbu’nia? 
Apa guna bermine matta,
Kalla tidah dangan sunggu’nia?

What signifies attempting to light a lamp,
If the wick be wanting? 
What signifies playing with the eyes,
If nothing in earnest be intended?

It must be observed however that it often proves a very difficult matter to trace the connexion between the figurative and the literal sense of the stanza.  The essentials in the composition of the pantun, for such these little pieces are called, the longer being called dendang, are the rhythmus and the figure, particularly the latter, which they consider as the life and spirit of the poetry.  I had a proof of this in an attempt which I made to impose a pantun of my own composing on the natives as a work of their countrymen.  The subject was a dialogue between a lover and a rich coy mistress:  the expressions were proper to the occasion, and in some degree characteristic.  It passed with several, but an old lady who was a more discerning critic than the others remarked that it was “katta katta saja”—­mere conversation; meaning that it was destitute of the quaint and figurative expressions which adorn their own poetry.  Their language in common speaking is proverbial and sententious.  If a young woman prove with child before marriage they observe it is daulu buah, kadian bunga—­the fruit before the flower.  Hearing of a person’s death they say, nen matti, matti; nen idup, bekraja:  kallo sampi janji’nia, apa buli buat?—­Those who are dead, are dead; those who survive must work:  if his allotted time was expired, what resource is there?  The latter phrase they always make use of to express their sense of inevitability, and has more force than any translation of it I can employ.

ARABIC CHARACTER USED BY MALAYS.

Their writing is in the Arabic character, with modifications to adapt that alphabet to their language, and, in consequence of the adoption of their religion from the same quarter, a great number of Arabic words are incorporated with the Malayan.  The Portuguese too have furnished them with several terms, chiefly for such ideas as they have acquired since the period of European discoveries to the eastward.  They write on paper, using ink of their own composition, with pens made of the twig of the anau tree.  I could never discover that the Malays had any original written characters peculiar to themselves before they acquired those now in use; but it is possible that such might have been lost, a fate that may hereafter attend the Batta, Rejang, and others of Sumatra, on which the Arabic daily makes encroachments.  Yet I have had frequent occasion to observe the former language written by inland people in the country character; which would indicate that the speech is likely to perish first.  The Malayan books are very numerous, both in prose and verse.  Many of them are commentaries on the koran, and others romances or heroic tales.