A Malay-English dictionary,

-

I

I

3CII

[ vii ]
Alexander, so that the HikAyat Iskandar dzli'l-karnain had not been long in existence in
A.D. I6II. The author of the Sejarah Melayu states that the Hikdyat Hamza and the Hikayat
Muhammnad Hanafiyyah were in existence when Malacca was taken, but his statement is worth
very little. It is sufficient to say that these stories were considered old in A.D. i6I 1.
The "Panji" tales in Malay show a distinct Javanese origin not only in their matter but
in their style. They are never written in a pure Peninsular dialect. It is difficult to date them,
but, so far as the Peninsula is concerned, they are probably modern. The Se4jdrah Melayu
(A.D. I6i1) quotes them, but quotes them in the Javanese original. WrERNDLY (A.D. 1736)
omits them from his list of Malay literary works. RAFFLES collected a number of them early in
the Nineteenth Century. At the present day they are very well-known through the shadowshow (wayang kulit) and they constitute by far the most bulky section of Malay literature.
The principal tales of this cycle are the Hikdfyat Chekel Waning Pati, the Hikdyat Ratu Eluom, the
Hikdyat Charang Kalina, the Hikdyat Perbu Jaya, the "Panji Samlrang'" poems and stories, the
Ken Tcambuhat poem, the Hikdyat Naga berseru, the Hikdyat Mas Edan, and the Hikdyat Slarkan.
As all these stories deal with the same cycle of events, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish one
'from another.
The fourth division of Malay literature-stories showing mixed influences-includes the
Sejarah Melayu which unites in one book Persian stories of Alexander, Javanese legends of Sira
Panji, folk-tales of the Fairy Princess of Mount Ophir, detailed rules of ceremonial, and
descriptions of historical events such as the capture of Malacca by d'Albuquerque. Books
purporting to be historical are however rare and the fourth class of Malay compositions is better
represented in pure romance. The typical work of this kind is a story of a prince who goes
wandering from land to land, marries numerous fair princesses, and slays evil genii, monsters,
and dragons by means of his proficiency in magic art. The story sometimes purports to be
told of a historical personage such as Kubad, father of Nushirvan the Just, but, of course, it is
quite unreliable as a biography and shows a curious medley of foreign influences, Persian kings
being mentioned along with Hindu divinities and Persian fairies (p5ri) with Hindu "devas,"
and Indonesian personifications of the sunset glow (nambang). Local Malay colour is, as a rule,
quite absent, except in the numerous quatrains (pantun) with which the story is brightened.
Whence came these tales, and when? They are never dated. WERNDLY (A.D. 1736) mentions
several. The Hikdyat Koris, which is exceptional in that it contains many local references,
clearly belongs to the period of Portuguese rule in Malacca. It was probably written in the

Peninsula as it contains descriptions of the Semang and Pangan aborigines, and it shows a
friendly spirit to Europeans, a rare thing in those days. The Dutch are not mentioned. The
Hikdyat Indera Me'nginde ra approaches the Hikdyat Koris so closely in point of style as to suggest
the same authorship or at least the same school of authorship. It is clear that some of these
romances date back to the Seventeenth Century, perhaps to the Sixteenth, but it is unlikely that
they go back further. Their use of quatrains suggests that they are not as old as the

L

-I- --