About a week ago Nákhodá Mŭda arrived here in person bringing a letter and certificates from Mr. King, a declaration in Malay under the seals of the Raja and his son, the same in Balinese, and,—what I value as more curious than all the rest—an extract from the written code of civil laws or Digámá of Lombok, certified by the two Edá Gédés or chief Brahmans, who are the depositories of law and the highest judges of the kingdom. I have always regarded Bálí and Lombok (the two first in the remarkable chain of Islands stretching eastward from Java to New Holland) with great interest, for there to this day what may be called the ancient history of the Malayan Archipelago is repeated, the ancient life is seen in full activity. Elsewhere Hinduism is extinct as a principle of faith and action, having been supplanted by Islamism, and is only to be traced, though largely, in the languages-of which some have more words of Sanscrit origin than of the old Malayan stock, and all more than of the modern Arabic engraftments,-in architectural remains (abundant in Java and scanty elsewhere) and in traditions, customs and literature. In Bálí and Lombok Hindu princes still reign. Castes are as distinctly, perhaps more distinctly marked than in India; the sacred Brahmans minister in the temples and expound the laws. It is as if instead of a mere dead material Pompeii disentombed, we had the religion, laws, language and manners of ancient Italy preserved in full life in Sicily. Of Bali we may read in Raffles' Java, Crawfurd's Indian Archipelago and other works. Of Lombok neither there nor elsewhere could I ever get any information. I was therefore well pleased when a door was thus opened through which I might obtain some insight into its condition. I have not, after all, been able to obtain any full or precise information. Of what little I gathered I shall note a few particulars.
The two writings in the Bálínese character are scratched with knives on lontar leaves, and this is the material on which their ancient laws are preserved, and which, to this day, is exclusively used in all their writings. In Java the palm leaf has long been superseded by paper.
The proper name of the island is Selápáran. The Bugis eall it
