reply; and the knowledge of both is indispensable to those who have occasion to communicate with persons of a different rank from themselves. In the polite language, Kawi words are frequently introduced by the party, either to show his reading, or evince a higher mark of respect. The Kawi however, is, more properly a dead language, the language of literary compositions of the higher class; and is, to the Javanese, what the Sanscrit is to the languages of Hindostan, and the Pali to the Birman and Siamese: how far it may assimilate to either, must remain to be decided by more accurate comparison and observation, than we have yet had opportunity to make. It is in this language that the more ancient and celebrated of the literary performances of the country are written; and it is probable that it will be found, that while the general language of Java possesses, in common with all the more cultivated languages of the archipelago, a considerable portion of Sanscrit terms, the court-language is still more replete with them; and that the Kawi, and particularly that which is reckoned most ancient, and which is decyphered from inscriptions on stone and copper-plates, is almost pure Sanscrit. The construction and idiom in these inscriptions is no longer comprehended by the Javanese, and there are but few whose intelligence, and acquaintance with the terms used, enables them to give even a faint notion of their meaning. Examples of these languages, taken from the B'rata Yud'ha, and from some of the inscriptions alluded to, will appear in the new volume of our Transactions.
To facilitate the acquirement of a language in its nature so extensive and varied as that of the Javanese, a method is adopted similar to what I understand is known in India, of classing the synonyms in such a manner as to connect them in the memory, by stringing them in classes, according to the natural chain of our ideas; the collection or vocabulary so composed is termed doso nomo, literally ten names, and in point of fact there are but few words in the language which have not at least so many synonyms.—An example of this mode of instruction and of assisting the memory is also included in our volume as illustrative, not only of the method alluded to, but of the great delicacy and variety of the language.
I am happy to report that very extensive vocabularies, not only of both divisions of the Javanese, including the Kawi, but of the Sunda, and of the dialects of Madura and Bali, with notices of the varieties in particular districts and mountain-tribes, have been collected and that whenever our more intimate acquaintance with the written compositions of the country may afford the test of some experience in aid of what has already been done, the grand work of a grammar and dictionary may be accomplished. This has long been our first and grand desideratum.
In both the Sunda and Javanese languages the same written
