Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/64

50 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE nails shining like lightning, transparent as a string of pearls ; — her waist slender, and extremely ele- gant ; — her neck turned like a polished statue. Eloquent in the enunciation of her words. Her parting words like the crimson red wood ; not by dress, but by herself adorned. Black are her teeth stained with Bqja powder. Graceful, slender, ap- pearing lilia a queen. Her locks adorned with the Saraja flowers ; — her features beautiful, with no defect of symmetry. My soul is often flutter- ing, ready to depart ; — glancing eagerly forth from my eyes, and quite unable to return to its station."* Prose composition, the largest portion of Malay- an literature, consists chiefly of romances, and of fragments of real story, so garbled and so obscured by fable, as to deserve the same name. The subjects of these are Hindu, Javanese, Arabian, and Telin- ga legends, with some fragments of domestic story of no remote period. The Mahabarat and Rama- yana, through the medium of Javanese paraphra- ses, as may be discovered by the intermixture of Javan localities, have afforded the subject of the first. The second consist of the adventures of the hero of Javanese romance, Raden Panji. The • Asiatic Researches, Vol. X.