HE Malay language, which Tis is original in the peninfula of Malayo, and has from thence extended itself throughout the eaftern iflands, fo as to become the lingua Franca of that part of the globe, is fpoken every where along the coafts of Sumatra, prevails in the inland country of Menangcabow and its immediate dependencies, and is understood in almpft every part of the island. It has been much celebrated, and juftly, for the fmoothnefs and fweetness of its found, which have gained it the appellation of the Italian of the Eaft. This is owing to the prevalence of vowels and liquids in the words, and the infrequency of any harsh combinations of mute confonants. Thele qualities render it well adapted to poetry, which the Malays are paffionately addicted to. They amufe all their leifure hours, including the greater portion of their lives, with the repetition of fongs, which are, for the most part, proverbs illuftrated, or figures of fpeech applied to the occurrences of life. Some that they rehcarfe, in a kind of recitative, at their bimbangs or feafts, are hiftorical love tales, like our old English ballads, but often extempore. An example of the former fpecies is as follows. "Apo goono paffang paleeto, "What fignifies attempting to light a lamp, If the wick be wanting? eyes. If nothing in carneft be intended?" It must be obferved however, that it often proves a very difficult matter to trace the connexion between the figurative and the literal fense of the ftanza. The effentials in the compofition of the pantoon, for fuch thefe little pieces are called; the longer being called dendang ; are the rythmus and the figure, particularly the latter, which they confider as the life and fpirit of the poetry. I had a proof of this in an attempt which I made, to impofe a pantoon of my own compofing, on the natives, as a work of their countrymen. The fubject was a dialogue between a lover, and a rich, coy miftrefs: the expreffions were proper to the occafion, and in fome degree characteriflic. It paffed with several, but an old lady who was a more difcerning critic than the others, remarked that it was "catto catto fajo" mere converfation; meaning that it was deftitute of the quaint and figurative expreflions which adorn their own poetry. Their language, in common fpeaking, is proverbial and fententious. If a young woman prove with child before marriage, they obferve it is "douloo booa, cadeean boongo""the fruit before the flower." Hearing Hearing of a perfon's death, they fay, nen mattee, mattee; nen cèdoop, becrajo: callo fampi-la janjeenia, apo boolee booat?"-" thofe who are dead, are dead; thofe who furvive must work: if his allotted time was expired, what rofource is there?" "Their writing is in the Arabic character, very little corrupted, owing to which, and the adoption of their religion from the fame quar ter, a great number of Arabic words are incorporated with the Malay. The Portugucle too have furnished them with many terms, chiefly for fuch ideas as they have acquired fince the period of European difcoveries to the eastward. They write on paper, using ink of their own compolition, with pens made of the twig of the anou tree. I could never difcover that the Malays had any original written characters, peculiar to themfelves, before they acquired thofe now in ufe; but it is poffible that fuch might have been loft; a fate that may hereafter attend thofe of Sumatra, on which the Arabic daily makes encroachments. Yet I have had frequent occafion to observe the Malay language written by inland people, in the country character; which would indicate that the fpeech is likley to perifh first. Their books are for the most part, either tranfcripts from the Alcoran (koraan) or legendary tales (kabar); of little merit as compofitions. "The pureft, or most esteemed Malay is faid, and with great ap. pearance of reafon, to be fpoken at Malacca. It differs from the dialect ufed in Sumatra chiefly in this, that words, in the latter, made to ter minate in "O," are, in the former, founded as ending in "A.", Thus they pronounce lada (pepper) instead of lado. Those words which end with a "K" in writing, are, in Sumatra, always foftened in fpeaking, by omitting it; as "tabbe bunnia," "many compliments," for "tabbek bunniak;" but the Malaccans, and especially the more eastern people, who fpeak very broad, give them generally the full found. The perfonal pronouns alfo differ materially in the refpective countries. "Attempts have been made to compofe a grammar of the Malay tongue, upon the principles on which thofe of the European languages are formed. But the abfurdity of fuch productions is obvious. Where there is no inflexion of either nouns or verbs, there can be no cales, declenfions, moods, or conjugations. All this is performed by the addition of certain words expreflive of a determinate meaning, which fhould not be confidered as mere auxilia. ries, or as particles fubfervient to other words. Thus, in the inflance of rooma, a house; "derree pada roma" fignifies "from a house; but it would be talking without ufe or meaning, to fay that derrce pada is the fign of the ablative cafe of that noun, for then every propofition fhould equally require an appropriate cafe, and as well as * of,” "to" and "from," we should have. a cafe for, "deatas rooma"-" on the top of the houfe." So verbs: "callo fayo boolee gellan"-" if I could walk :" this may be termed the preter-imperfect tenfe of the fubjunctive or potential mood, of the verb gellan; whereas it is in fact a fentence, of which gellan, boolee, &c. are conftitutent words. It is improper, I fay, to talk of the cafe of a noun, which does not change its termination, or the mood of a verb, which does not alter its form. An ufeful fet of obfervations might be collected, for fpeaking the lan- L 3 guage guage with correctnefs and propriety; but they must be as different from the artificial and technical rule of our grammarians, as the drefs of an European lady, from the fimplicity of a Malay habit. "Befide the Malay there are a variety of languages Spoken in Sumatra, which, however, have not only a manifest affinity among themfelves, but also to that general language which is found to prevail in, and to be indigenous to all the iflands of the eastern fea; from Madagaf car to the remoteft of captain Cooke's difcoveries; comprehending a wider extent than the Roman, or any other tongue, has yet boafted. Indifputable examples of this connexion and fimilarity, I have exhibited in a paper which the Society of Antiquaries have done me the honour to publish in their Archæologia. In different places it has been more or lefs mixed and corrupted, but be tween the most diffimilar branches, an evident fameness of many radical words is apparent; and in fome, very diftant from each other in point of fituation; as for inftance the Philippines and Madagafear; the deviation of the words is fcarcely more than is obferved in the dialects of neighbouring provinces of the fame kingdom. The principal internal languages of Sumatra, are the Rejang and the Batta, whofe difference is marked, not fo much by the want of correfpondence in the terins, as by the circumftance of their being each expreffed in a distinct and peculiar written character. This I conceive to be extraordinary, and perhaps fingular, in the hiftory of human improvement; that two divifions of people on the fame ifland, with equal claims to originality, in tages of civilization nearly equal, and speaking languages derived from the fame fource, should write in characters effentialy different from each other, and from the rest of the world. What corroborates the evidence of the alphabets being feparate and unconnected inventions, is, that the order of the letters is not the fame; as will appear by an inspection of the fpecimens I have subjoined for the gratification of the curious. The Achencfe making use of the Arabic character, their lan guage has the lefs claim to origi nality. The Lampoon, as a dialect, is fufficiently diftinct from all the others; but a few of the letters of the alphabet, particularly the first and fecond, are expreffed by characters manifeftly the fame with the Rejang, though the major part feem entirely unlike. Perhaps, as the Greeks are faid to have done in the days of Cadmus, the Lampoons may have borrowed from their neighbours, in order to complete the number of their letters. All thefe people, in writing, form their lines from the left-hand towards the right, contrary to the practice of the Malays and the Arabians. "Their writings, of any bulk and importance, are executed, with ink, on the inner bark of a tree, cut into narrow ftrips of confiderable length, and folded together in fquares; each fquare or fold anfwering for a page. On more common occafions they write on the outer coat of a joint of bamboo; fometimes whole, and fometimes fplit into pieces of two or three inches in breadth; with the point of their creefe or other weapon, which ferves the purpose of a ftylus. These writings or fcratchings rather, are often performed with a confiderable degree of neatnefs; of which I have fpecimens in my poffeffion, as well as of their larger works. The proportion of thofe among the na ACCOUNT of BARDSEYE ISLAND, and of St. DUBRITIUS's CONVENT. [From the Second Part of the Second Volume of Mr. PENNANT' Tour in Wales.] Fboat for Bardfeye ifland, which daren. ROM this port I once took other offices are performed at Aber lies about three leagues to the west. The mariners feemed tinctured with the piety of the place; for they had not rowed far, but they made a full ftop, pulled off their hats, and of fered up a fhort prayer. After doubling a headland, the ifland appears full in view: we pafled under the lofty mountain which forms one fide. After doubling the farther end, we put into a little fandy creek, bounded by low rocks, as is the whole level part. On landing, I found all this tract a very fertile plain, and well cultivated, and productive of every thing which the main land affords. The abbot's houfe is a large ftone building, inhabited by feveral of the natives: not far from it is a fingular chapel, or oratory, being a long arched edifice, with an infulated stone altar near the east end. In this place one of the inhabitants reads prayers; all "The island is about two miles in circumference, contains a few inhabitants, and is rented from lord Newborough. It was granted by Edward VI. to his uncle fir Thomas Seymour, and after his death to John earl of Warwick. The late fir John Wynn purchased it from the late reverend Dr. Wilfon of Newark. But, "The island, whofe fpiritual concerns are at prefent under the care of a fingle ruftic, once afforded, during life, an afylum to 20,000 faints; and after death, graves to as many of their bodies: well therefore might it be called Infula Sanc torum, The Ifle of Saints. with Dr. Fuller, I muft obferve, that "it would be more facile to find graves in Bardfeye for fo many faints, than faints for fo many graves." But to approach the truth; let it be faid, that Dubritius, arch L 4 bishop bishop of Caer-leon, almost worn out with age, refigning his fee to St. David, retired here, and according to the best account, died in 612; was interred on the fpot; but in after times his body was removed to Landaff. The flaughter of the monks at Bangor, about the year 607, is fuppofed to have contribut ed to the population of this ifland; for not only the brethren who efcaped, but numbers of other pious Britons, fled hither to avoid the rage of the Saxons, "The time in which the religi-. ous houfe was founded, is very uncertain; it probably was before the retreat of Dubritius; for fomething of that kind must have occafioned him to give the preference to this place. It feems likely to have been a feat of the Culdees, or Colidei, the first religious reclufes of Great Britain; who fought iflands and defert places in which they might in fecurity worship the true God. It was certainly reforted to in very early times; for our accounts fay, that it flourished as a convent in the days of Cadwan king of Britain, coeval with Dubritius. It was an abbey dedicated to St. Mary. I find among the Sebright MSS. mention of a petition from the abbot to Edward II. in which he fets forth the injuries he had received from the fheriff of Caernarvon, who had extorted from him 685, and 6d. con trary to his deed of feoffiment: on which the king directed Roger de Mortimer, jufticiary of Wales, to make enquiry into the matter; who reported, that the abbot held his lands in the county of Caernarvon, in puram et perpetuam eleemofynam, without any fervice or fecular acknowlegement; and farther, that David, lord of Lhein, and brother to the la prince of Wales, had exacted the fame fum; as did his Pencynydd, or mafter of his dogs, poffibly under pretence of maintaining them. The king therefore, by his fpecial favor, and by advice of his council, does for ever remit the faid fum, and all arrears; and directs that no one in future, either on his account, or that of his heirs, ever fhould moleft the convent. "The house underwent the com-' mon fate of others at the diffolution. Its revenues were, as Dugdale fays, 461. s. 4d. according to Speed, 581. 65. 2d. In the year 1553, only 17. 6s. 8d. remained in charge to the furviving religious of this place. "The British name of the island is Ynys Enlli, or the Island in the Current, from the fierce current which rages particularly between it and the main land. The Saxons named it Bardfeye, probably from the bards who retire here, prefering folitude to the company of invading foreigners." |