text:
Page:A dictionary of the Sunda language of Java.djvu/311

290 Mustail, most likely Arabic—that is out of the question. An asseveration of disbelief. You cannot think to make one believe. (Ar. مُسْتَحِيلٌ, Mustahîl, not true; absurd; impossible).

Mustajab, arabic, unerring, infallible. Certain of its effect. Agreeable, acceptable. (مُسْتَجَابٌ Mustajâb, admitted, conceded (by God).

Mustari, arabic, the planet Jupiter. A book of incantations or of divinations. (مُشْترٍ, Mushtarin. Freytag).

Mustika, a bezoar, an amulet; any small stone or object of nature used for a charm to cure disease or ward off evil. The possession of such Mustika is thought to give the owner supernatural power. Such Mustika are often concretionary balls found in the stomach of animals. Mustika awi, silicious incrustations sometimes found in the joints of bambu, to which supernatural powers are attributed. Mushtika, C. 553, a goldsmith. Mushti, C. 553, the fist, the closed hand. Perhaps our Mustika, amulet, has gained its name from possesing hidden virtues, as if closed in the hand, but nevertheless efficacious. (From Mush, to steal: things concealed!).

Musuh, an enemy, a hostile opponent. (Mal. idem).

Musung, having only one testicle. A peculiarity of some animals.

Muté, beads, beads for stringing. (Scr. Mutya, a pearl. Jav. Mote; Mal. Mutiya).

Mutĕlak, arabic, absolute, general. Wakil mutĕlak, plenipotentiary. An agent possessing full powers. Hak mutĕlak, an undoubted right, an absolute right. (مُطْلَقٌ, Mutlak, general, absolute).

Mutiara, a pearl. Mutu and Muttika, C. 549 and 550, a pearl. (Scr. Mutya+hâra, a string of pearls).

Mutuhkĕn, to cause to be hard up; to cause to become destitute; to put to very great inconvenience. See Butuh. (Jav. Ambutuhkĕn, idem).

Mu-uk, said of bees which fly out and attack or sting a person or animal disturbing their nest.

Muyěněng, being quiet, tranquil; to mope. Jélěma kasusahan muyěněng bai di imah, a man in difficulties, sitting moping in the house. (Cf. Mal. sĕnang, quiet, in peace).

Muyungkung, all—overish; feeling unwell without exactly knowing what is the matter; out of spirits and unwell.  Na, The possessive pronoun, his, her, its. Hulu na lalaki, a man's head; imah na éwé randa, a widow's house; tungtung na kayu, the end of the wood. It not unfrequently precedes the substantive to which it alludes, when uchsuch [sic] substantive is preceded by the preposition di or ka, when it has less of a possessive power. Di na imah, at the house; whereas to make it: at his house, would require another na after imah, as di na imah na; Ka na hadé ma, hanto, as to its being good, no. Na is often used in the sense of our the, but as such it always follows the substantive to which it re-


text:
Lectures on the Tinnevelly Missions/Chapter II

Tinnevelly is one of those "Collectorates," "Zillahs," or provinces, each comprising about a tenth of the area of England, into which British India is divided, and is the most southerly province on the eastern side of India, or, as it is termed, the Coromandel Coast. Cape Comorin, the southern extremity of the Indian peninsula, is included in the native state of Travancore, on the Malabar or Western Coast; but Tinnevelly may be regarded as commencing at Cape Comorin, for it commences only about three miles to the east of the Cape. It contains an area of 5,482 square miles, and a population of 1,269,216 souls; consequently, the population amounts to 233 in the square mile, which is exactly equal to the average population of the midland counties in England. Tinnevelly is separated from Travancore by the great mountain chain of the Ghauts, which form its western boundary, and on the east it is bounded by the Gulf of Manaar, by which it is separated from Ceylon. Its greatest length to the north-east is about 120 miles, and its greatest breadth from east to west about 75 miles.

The southern extremity of the province being only 8 5' north of the equator, the heat is necessarily very great. During the whole period of my residence in Tinnevelly, I never noticed the thermometer lower than 70, and rarely so low as that. When it sinks to 75 we call it cold weather, and put on additional clothing. Though our so-called cold weather is warmer than the average of summer heat in England, it is a comfort that during the hot season the thermometer is not proportionately high. I have not known it higher in my own house at any period of the year than 91, and it is rarely more than a few degrees higher even in the hottest localities. This would be reckoned a very moderate degree of summer heat in Northern India, where, though it sometimes sinks in the cold weather to the freezing-point, it rises in the hot season to 110 or even 120 in the shade. In Tinnevelly such violent extremes of temperature are unknown, the annual range being rarely more than 20; but owing to the entire absence of cold weather, properly so called, the aggregate of heat throughout the year is much greater than in Northern India. We have not the alternatives of being roasted one part of the year and frozen the other, but gently simmer over a slow fire the whole year round. On the other hand, the heat of Tinnevelly is not a moist, enervating heat, like that of the Malabar Coast and Ceylon, but a dry, healthy heat; and there are few provinces in India which agree so well, on the whole, with the European constitution. As there is no province in India where Missionaries are more numerous, so there is none where they enjoy better health or are able to remain longer in their spheres of duty. Though the dryness of the air may be conducive to the health of the inhabitants, it is far from being conducive to the fertility of the soil. The drought is so excessive, that much of the land lies uncultivated. On the southern coast, where my own residence was, the average annual fall of rain was only 22 inches, which is less than the average fall in England j and three -fourths of the entire quantity fell during a single month, November. Only 35 inches of rain were registered during the three years that elapsed before I left! This excessive drought is owing to the influence of the Ghauts, the great mountain range, or rather mountain-plateau, by which Southern India is divided into two portions, the Coromandel and Malabar coasts. The steep sides of this plateau form a continuous chain of mountains from near Cape Comorin for about 200 miles northwards, and the breadth of the plateau gradually increases from a single rock at the Cape to about 80 miles at "the Coimbatoor gap." The average height of the ridge is about 3,000 feet, but there are peaks which rise to double that height. This elevated range acts as an effectual barrier to the rains of the South- West monsoon, which is the great monsoon, or periodical rainy season, of India, and to which the greater part of India owes its fertility. On the Malabar Coast, the western side of the Ghauts, there is a great abundance of rain : consequently, we have there perpetual verdure, and per petual fertility and beauty ; for in the tropics, wherever we have rain, we have all the elements of vegetable wealth. But on the eastern side of the Ghauts, on the Coromandel Coast, including the whole of the Carnatic, the supply of rain from the South-West monsoon is almost entirely intercepted by the Ghauts : the North- Eastern monsoon, which is the special monsoon of the Coromandel Coast, compensates but partially for the absence of the South- Western ; and the evil reaches its maximum in Tinnevelly, which is not only shut out from the South- West monsoon, but is robbed, by the vicinity of Ceylon, of half its due share of the North-Eastern. Ceylon does not lie wholly to the south of India, as is sometimes supposed ; its northern extremity is nearly two degrees to the north of Cape Comorin, and hence the whole length of Tinnevelly is overlapped by it. Though so little rain falls in Tinnevelly, and though the greater part of the province suffers severely in consequence, there are regions which are as fertile and beautiful as the eye could desire. Besides smaller rivers, there is one of considerable magnitude, and of great celebrity and sacredness, the Tamravarni, or " copper-coloured " river, which irrigates and fertilizes the ex tensive tract of country through which it flows ; and as this river rises in the Ghauts, it is filled by the rains of both monsoons, so that two crops of rice every year are produced all along its banks. .Similar advantages are enjoyed by the rich and beautiful districts in the vicinity of the mountains ; and hence, though Tinnevelly does not participate directly in the rains of the South- Western monsoon, yet in the neighbourhood of the rivers and mountains it participates indirectly, yet largely, in the fertilizing influences of those rains. In consequence of this, in the amount of revenue derived from " wet cultivation," that is, rice, &c., Tinnevelly ranks next to Tanjore amongst South-Indian provinces.

Notwithstanding the advantages enjoyed by particular portions of the province, nine-tenths of the entire area are parched and arid through excessive drought, and there are districts as sandy, burnt up, and dreary as any in the deserts of Africa. I have stood on a mountain peak about twenty miles from Cape Comorin, from which both Travancore and Tinnevelly are visible at once, and have been exceedingly struck with the difference ; Travan core beautifully green, and diversified with hill and dale, wood, lake, and river ; Tinnevelly an immense fiery-red plain, with signs of cultivation few and far between. On closer acquaintance, -the reality is found to be better than the appearance ; for the " regur," or blistered "black cotton soil" of the northern dis tricts is well adapted to the growth of cotton, about 60,000 bales of which are annually shipped at Tutocorin for England and China, besides what is retained for use in Tinnevelly itself, and .the adjacent provinces : the red sands also of the South-Eastern districts are admirably suited to the growth of the palmyra palm.

In those districts in which the majority of our Mission Churches are planted, the chief dependence of the people is upon the palmyra, which is to them what rice is in Bengal, or wheat in England the staff of life. During the brief and scanty rains of the North-Eastern monsoon, a crop of pulse and of inferior sorts of grain is raised from the better kinds of soil ; and where water is available for irrigation, the plantain, or banana, is largely and successfully cultivated. Along the lower slopes of the " t6ries," or red sand hills, which form so peculiar a feature of the South- Eastern palmyra districts, the water lies near the surface, and is available for plantain gardens ; and hence each of those slopes is beautified by a belt of the richest, brightest green, which presents a grateful contrast to the uncultivated, naked, fiery-red ridges of the "t6ries." The staple produce, however, of the sandy districts is the palmyra. If one were to judge from abstract probabilities, he might expect to find those districts uninhabited ; but Divine Providence is there as well as here, and it has pleased Providence to ordain that the palmyra palm should flourish more luxuriantly in those sands than in any other part of the East, and should feed an abundant population with its saccharine sap. The sandy districts in the South-East teem with human life, and it is remark able that it is amongst the inhabitants of those districts that Christianity has made greatest progress. Hitherto, from a variety of causes, Christianity and the palmyra have appeared to flourish together. Where the palmyra abounds, there Christian congrega tions and schools abound also ; and where the palmyra disappears, there the signs of Christian progress are rarely seen.

As the majority of the people who have been converted from heathenism in Tinnevelly, and who form the bulk of our Christian congregations, are cultivators of the palmyra, and as most of my own sphere of labour was included in the palmyra forest, I shall here give my readers a description of that remarkable tree.

The palmyra is one of the least elegant of the family of palms, but is, perhaps, the most useful member of the family. It grows to the height of from GO to 90 feet, almost as straight, though not as smooth, as the mast of a ship. Like other palms, it is totally destitute of branches, but is surmounted by an erect plume of fan-shaped leaves, each of which is so large that it may almost be regarded as a branch. Each leaf is shaped like a fan, not pinnated like that of the coco-nut palm, whence it has received its botanical name of Borassus flaldliformis, or " fan-shaped Borassus."* The leaves are stiffer and much less graceful than the long, drooping leaves of the coco-nut, but of all leaves they are the most ser viceable to man. They are not only used for thatching the houses of the middle and lower classes, but are also used for making mats, baskets, and vessels of almost every description ; and a single leaf folded in a particular manner serves as a bucket for drawing water with. But the leaf of the palmyra is put to a still more remark able use : slips of the young leaf form the ordinary stationery of the Hindus in every part of Southern India. Thus in India the " leaf " on which people write is literally a leaf. Each ray, or vein, of the fan-shaped leaf comprises two long slips, and each of those slips will suffice as writing material for an ordinary letter : a collection of leaves strung together constitutes a book. The leaf requires no smoothing or pressing, or any other process of preparation. Just as it comes from the tree it may be used for writing upon ; and as nearly a hundred such slips are supplied by a single leaf, and as a cart-load of leaves may be had for a few shillings, the Hindus are provided with the cheapest species of stationery in the world. It is written upon with an iron pen, or graver, an instrument with a sharp steel point, with which the penman rapidly graves or scratches the characters ; and though the " olei," or palmyra leaf, is not as durable as parchment, or even as paper, yet I have seen documents written on it which were at least 200 years old.

The palmyra is the only palm-tree of which the wood is of any value, and the rafters and laths made of the palmyra are regarded as the best of their kind ; but the high estimate in which the palmyra is held is chiefly owing to the value of its products as articles of food. The young root is edible, and so is the ripe fruit : neither, however, is of much value ; the unripe fruit is greatly preferable, inasmuch as it contains the purest, most wholesome, and most refreshing vegetable jelly in existence.

" Borassus," the generic name of the palmyra, is one of the names which the Greeks gave to the membrane that envelopes the fruit of the Date palm. In after times it came to be used as the botanical name of that family of palms to which the palmyra belongs. ,

These articles sink into insignificance when compared with the saccharine sap or juice of the tree, which is by far its most valuable product. The "patha-mr," or unfermented sap, without any cooking or preparation, is very nourishing : during the period when it flows most abundantly, the poorer classes get visibly sleeker and more comfortable, and you might almost see your face in the skin of the children. Just as it comes from the tree, the sap forms the breakfast of the Shanars and lower castes, who drink it in a cup formed for the occasion of a palmyra leaf. The supply of sap is greatly in excess of what is required for daily use, and most of it is boiled into a hard, black mass, called by the English "jaggery " a kind of coarse sugar-cake, which forms the mid-day meal of the same classes. Their evening meal, the principal meal of all Hindus, which is generally of rice, with some curried addita- ments, is procured by the sale of the superfluous "jaggery." The greater part of what is made is sold, and it always commands a ready sale. Some of it is sent to be refined into white sugar for the European market ; and by varying the process a little, the people themselves make a very good sugar-candy. It is the unfermented juice of the palmyra which is used as food : when allowed to ferment, which it will do before mid-day if left to itself, it is changed into a sweet, intoxicating drink, called " kal," or " toddy." This is the liquid which is generally used in India as yeast for leavening bread, but it is also used by the Pariars and other low- caste Hindus, especially in the vicinity of large towns, for the purpose of intoxication. The Shunars, the cultivators of the tree in the southern provinces, are rarely known to make use of it for this purpose : as a caste, they are strictly temperate, in which respect they differ from all other low-caste tribes, and claim to be ranked with the higher castes. One may travel for miles through the thickest part of the palmyra forest, without meeting with a single tree that is licensed to be used for "toddy." Between Edeyenkoody and Sawyerpuram, a distance of thirty-two miles, which I have very frequently traversed,, and which is thickly planted with palmyras throughout, I have only noticed the existence of one " licensed" tree.

The amount of nourishment which is supplied by the palmyra, without even the trouble of cooking, might be supposed to operate as a premium upon indolence ; but, in reality, we find no premium upon indolence in Tinnevelly, or anywhere else in God's world a hard-working world, in which it has been made necessary for every class of people to eat their bread by the sweat of their brow. The Shanars are as industrious a people as any in India ; and if this were not their character, the provision made for their wants would be unavailable, for though their breakfast is ready cooked for them, it is at the top of the palmyra, and the palmyra is a tall, slim tree, without a single branch ; hence it is necessary for every man to climb for his breakfast before he gets it, and the labour of climbing the palmyra in so hot a climate is one of the hardest and most exhausting species of labour anywhere to be seen.

The sap of the tree cannot be obtained, as from the maple, by tapping the trunk ; it flows only from the spadix, or flower-stalk, at the top of the tree. From amongst the fan-shaped leaves, which form the plumed head of the palmyra, there shoot forth in the season several bunches of flower-stalks ; each flower-stalk branches out into several, and each of those flowering branches, when bruised or sliced, yields drop by drop about a pint a day of sweet juice. A little earthen vessel is attached to each " spadix," or flower-branch, to receive the sap as it drops ; and it is the business of such of the Shanars as are palmyra-climbers to cjimb the tree morning and evening, for the purpose of trimming the "palei," or spadix, and emptying into a sort of pail made of pal myra leaf, which they carry up with them, all the sap that they find collected since their last ascent. The pail is then conveyed to a little boiling-house in the neighbourhood, where the women boil the juice into "jaggery." In the northern part of the Carnatic, the palmyra-climbers make use of a sort of movable girdle, to help them in climbing the tree ; but in Tinnevelly and Travancore, in which palmyra-climbing is much more common, the Shanars make no use of any such artificial assistance. They clasp the tree with joined hands, and support their weight not with the knees (which project from the trcv, and of which they make no use,) but with the soles of the feet, which they bend inwards like the hands, and keep together by the help of a little band, so as to enable them to clasp the tree almost as the hands do, and then they ascend, not by the alternate action of each hand, but by a series of springs, in which both hands move together and both feet follow together, not unlike the action used in swimming. A Shanar will climb a palmyra in this manner almost as rapidly as a man will walk the same length, and most of them are accustomed thus to climb fifty trees twice a-day, or even three times a-day, for eight months in the year. Taking sixty feet as the average height of a palmyra, and the climbing of fifty palmyras twice a-day, as the average work of an able-bodied Shanar, we shall form a clear idea of the amount of his work, if we suppose him, every day for the greater part of every year, to climb a perpendicular pole 3,000 feet in height, and then to descend the same pole the same day, ascending and descending without any apparatus, and supporting the entire weight of his body by his strength of limb alone ! Surely no harder work than this has ever been done in a tropical climate. Though the palmyra may be said to resemble a mast, or pole, it must not be supposed to be as smooth. The bark is rough from the scars of former leaves, and this renders the climbing of the tree less difficult, and also less dangerous, than it would otherwise have been. Accidents rarely occur, except in high winds, or when the tree is slippery through recent rain, and not often even then. I knew of a man who was sitting upon a leaf-stalk at the top of a palmyra in a high wind, when the stalk gave way, and he came down eighty feet to the ground, safely and quietly, sitting on the leaf, which served the purpose of a natural parachute.

No kind of cultivation involves so little trouble or expense as that of the palmyra. The nut has merely to be cast into the sand and loosely covered over, and no further thought or care is necessary till it becomes a tree and begins to bear. The farmer is often relieved even of the trouble of planting by the crows, which leave the nut on the ground after devouring the fruit. Sometimes, for two or three years, no trace of the young palmyra appears above ground: it might be supposed to have perished, but it is busily occupied in working its way downwards in search of water. After about twenty years of neglect, this wonderful tree which the Hindus praise as the model of the highest sort of generosity begins to requite its owner for benefits which it never received.

It is remarkable that the palmyra yields its sweet juice not during, or at the close of, the rainy season, when it might be expected to be full of sap, but during the hottest period of the year. The sap begins to rise when the sun returns from the south, and flows most copiously when the sun is righb overhead. The sun is vertical in Tinnevelly in April, and again in August; and the intervening period including also March and Sep tember is what is called the palmyra season. When the heat is BO great and so continuous that every blade of grass disappears from the parched soil when the air is filled with clouds of red sand, hurled along by the land-wind, or South- West monsoon, which mocks with showers of sand the earth's desire for rain then it is that the palmyra yields the abundance of its cool, sweet, refreshing sap, for the supply of the wants of the people. I have dug down through the sandy soil to see where this copious supply of sap came from, and have found the long, stringy roots of the palmyra penetrating right down to a depth of forty feet beneath the surface. There I found them drinking in perpetual draughts of water in the secret springs and channels that lie far beneath the surface of the ground, where the greatest droughts never reach. Even at that depth, I found that they penetrated still lower into interstices amongst the rocks, where I could follow them no longer. Here, then, I found the reason why the palmyra flourishes so well in the sands of Tinnevelly why it flourishes best where the soil is loosest and sandiest, and why in the hottest season of the year it pours forth from its head such a constant supply of cool, sweet moisture. What a remarkable illustration is this of the wisdom with which Divine Providence makes the peculiarities of every part of the world minister, in some way or another, to the support and advantage of mankind !

Most of the Christian converts in Tinnevelly being Shanar?, and either owners or climbers of the palmyra, at the commence ment of the climbing season I was accustomed to assemble our people in church for a special service, including prayers that the tree might yield its fruit, and that the climber's " foot might not slide;" and on such occasions I have sometimes reminded the people of an appropriate expression in our Tamil version of the psalms Nitima'n panei-pol serippan, " the righteous shall flourish like the palmyra," (the Tamil rendering of Ps. xcii. 11, "the righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree," the palmyra being adopted as the representative of palms in general) : and I have then reminded my Shanar hearers, that " the righteous," for this reason amongst others, may be said to " flourish like the palmyra," because he, too, strikes his roots deep beneath the surface the root of faith shoots deep down into the love of God, and "the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ;" and hence the righteous " flourishes like the palmyra " in a dry and thirsty land flourishes most not in the richest soil, but in the poorest, in afflictions and persecutions, and is continually bringing forth fruit for the refreshment of mankind. Thus, in Tinnevelly, as everywhere else in the world, there are " sermons " in trees and stones, "and good in everything." Our attention must now be turned from the country to the people.

In consequence of Tinnevelly lying at the southern extremity of the Indian peninsula, there are few provinces in India in which ancient Hindu usages have been so faithfully preserved. Five hundred years had elapsed from the time of the arrival of the Mahometans in India, before the wave of Mahometan conquest reached and overspread Tinnevelly j and hence the Mahometans are fewer and less influential here than elsewhere. The language of the province is Tamil, and the Tamil spoken by the educated classes in Tinnevelly is singularly pure and classical. Even amongst the lower classes, notwithstanding their rude pro nunciation, the language of the ancient poets still lingers. The Tamravarni, or Palamcottah river, is represented by native writers as the southern boundary of the Sen-Tamir nadu, or " Classical-Tamil country," and the -whole of the province, together with the southern districts of Travancore, was included in the ancient Pandiyan empire an empire of which Madura was the capital city, and which sent two embassies to the Emperor Augustus.

The inhabitants of Tinnevelly, as of most other provinces in India, may be divided into the three classes of Brahmans, Sudras, and lower classes; and, as elsewhere, it is chiefly amongst the lower classes that Christianity has made progress.

The Brahmans spring from a different origin from the rest of the Hindus, and claim kindred with ourselves. They are the lineal representatives of that Sanscrit-speaking race, allied to the Greeks and Germans, which conquered the Punjab at least 1500 years before the Christian era, and which rendered ancient India so illustrious for philosophy, literature, and the cultivation of the arts. Tinnevelly, like every other part of India, owes its higher civilization to the Brahmans, who appear to have formed colonies along the fertile banks of the Tamravarni six or seven centuries before the Christian era, and gradually made themselves revered by the aboriginal tribes as their guides, philosophers, and friends. They founded amongst the Dravidians, or South-Indians, a succession of civil communities modelled after the empires of Northern India, and taught the rude chieftains of the South to imitate the cultivated tastes of the " Solar " and "Lunar" dynasties. Notwithstanding the value of these services to society, it is questionable whether they are not outweighed by the evils which the Brahmans introduced idol worship, a routine of inane ceremonies, morbid scrupulosity respecting meats and drinks, an unpractical philosophy, and the division and subdivision of the people into castes. The Brahmans have become much more numerous than in the olden time, but much less influ ential. They still, it is true, rank at the head of native society as a sacred, priestly aristocracy, which has not degraded itself by a single intermarriage with the classes beneath it for 2,500 years; but individually the Brdhmans have now little religious or social influence beyond what they possess as respectable landed pro prietors. The greater number even of the priestly functions, except in the more important temples, are now performed in Southern India by Sudras, who form, undoubtedly, the most influ ential portion of the community; and though they are rarely more willing than the Brahmans to embrace Christianity, they seldom evince that, scorn of it, as a foreign or low-caste religion, which the Brahmans generally evince. So far as I am aware, only one Tinnevelly Brahman has, as yet, become a Christian.

The un-Brahmanical, or aboriginal Hindus, who are ordinarily styled " the Tamil people," " the Telugu people," &c., and who constitute nine-tenths of the population everywhere in Southern India, belong not to the Aryan or Indo- Germanic, but to the Turanian or Scythian race that race to which the Mongols, the Turks, and the Finns belong ; and the vernacular languages of Southern India, though occupying a distinct position of their own amongst the various families of human speech, have a greater resem- Hance to the Finnish tongues than to any other class. The South Indian aborigines, having received from the Brahmans the elements of their higher civilization, were divided by their Brahman in structors into castes, and have become as zealous for caste as the Brahmans themselves. All the castes into which they were divided maybe classified into two easily recognized divisions ; viz. the higher or Sudra group, including the " cultivators," merchants, artificers, shepherds, &c. ; and the lower castes, beginning with the Shanars, including the Pariars, and other agricultural slaves, and ending with the wandering gipsy tribes. I regard the lower castes not as the descendants of a race of aborigines still older than the Tamilians, but as the descendants of those Tamilians who happened to occupy a low position in the social scale, as servants or slaves, at the period when the Brahmanical caste system was introduced, and who have been prevented by that fossilizing system from ever emerging from the position they then occupied. The Siidra castes of Southern India occupy a position in society much superior to that of the Sudras in the North. The castes called by that name in the North belong to the lower classes : the Sudras of the South answer closely to our "middle classes;" they form the staple of population in the towns and in the richer country districts; manufactures, commerce, the administration of justice and education, are mainly in their hands, and it is to them that the people of the lower castes generally look as their natural heads and guides.

A considerable proportion of the Tinnevelly Sudras in some districts a large majority of them have sprung from a Telugu origin, and speak Telugu in their own homes, though they com municate with their neighbours freely enough in Tamil. They belong to the Telugu castes of Reddies, Naiks, &c., and are descendants of those men at arms and adventurers who followed the fortunes of the Vijaya-nagar generals, by whom the Chola and Pandiya dynasties were subverted in the fifteenth century, and who were rewarded for their services by donations of uncul tivated lands in various districts, especially in the northern part of Tinnevelly. These Telugu castes rank lower than the corre sponding Tamil castes in point of social respectability, but in domestic morals they rank lower still. The married life of the middle classes of the Tamil people is singularly free from blame ; but all sorts of irregularities and abominations prevail amongst the Telugu settlers, and instead of exposing the guilty parties to disgrace, are sanctioned by the law of the caste. Hence, in addition to the ordinary difficulties in the way of the reception of Christianity by persons of caste, the Reddies are deterred from it (and sometimes, after they hate nominally received it, are induced to abandon it) by its pure morality. It was from this cause, amongst others, that the promising movement amongst the Reddies in the north of Tinnevelly, of which so much was heard seven or eight years ago, came to nothing. Though the pure Tamil castes present a favourable contrast to the Telugu settlers in point of domestic morals, they are con sidered to be, and probably are, more untruthful and slippery. They are commonly regarded as the least scrupulous and as the most adventurous of Hindu races. One can hardly fail to read n their very look the habit of gaining their purpose by a circuitous path, and of overcoming opposition not by open resistance, but by a feigned, temporary compliance.

No Indian people, not even, I think, the Brahmans, have reached a higher point of civilization than the Tamilian Siidras ; but their civilization, like that of every Asiatic people, is partial and unequal. One meets with as many degrees of civilization as of complexion. Stupendous hewn-stone temples and mean mud- built habitations, a scrupulous regard for ceremonial purity, and a shameful disregard of decency and drains, institutions of con summate policy and follies of which sensible children would be ashamed, exist everywhere side by side. Indian civilization is full of inconsistencies and incongruities : it is lacking in expan- siveness and in progress ; but its most grievous defect consists in the absence of that scorn of lies and that keen sense of honour which are inherent in Christian civilization, and which charac terize the Christian gentleman.

Notwithstanding the high civilization which the high-caste Hindus, and especially the Tamilians, have reached, and their fondness for religious speculation and ceremonial, they are deeply sunk in spiritual ignorance and mental torpor. In no country in the world does religion enter so largely into the affairs of life and the usages of society as in India : it pervades the entire frame work of society, and mixes itself up in every concern, whether public or private, in which the people are interested ; and yet in no country has religion exerted so little influence for good. There are ancient sects and modern sects, austere sects and licentious sects, high-soaring metaphysical sects and grovelling materialist sects, sects that worship the gods and sects that worship the demons, sects that worship the sun and sects that worship the snake, sects that worship everything and sects that worship nothing ; but the results of each and all seem exactly iden tical they leave men where they found them, or make them worse. They are reckoned by the Brahmans themselves as equally useful, which means, I presume, that they are equally useless.

It used to be said by the Duke of Wellington, that " education without religion made people clever devils : " recent events in India prove that this may be said with still greater truth of the effects of civilization without religion, or, what is still worse, if possible, civilization with a bad religion. The tiger's step becomes softer and its coat sleeker, but it remains as much of a tiger as ever. Human nature when left to itself is bad enough, but it becomes still worse when the devil, in the shape of a bad religion, gets the management of it, and when God's gifts are placed at the devil's disposal.

I may here remark, that it is the peculiar policy of the Brahmans to render all the religious systems of India subservient to their purpose by making friends of them all. Brahmanism repudiates exclusiveness ; it incorporates all creeds, assimilates all, consecrates all. People are permitted to entertain any opinions they please, and to practise any ceremonies they please, provided only that the supremacy of the Vedas and of the Brahmans is acknowledged. When that acknowledgment has been duly made, the new heterodoxy becomes another new authoritative orthodoxy, especially revealed by the Supreme Being himself for the enlightenment and salvation of the parti cular class of people amongst whom it has become popular. Thus Brahmanism yields and conquers ; and hence, though the demon- worship of Tinnevelly is as far as possible repugnant to the genius of orthodox Hinduism, and was not only independent of it in origin, but, as I believe, long anterior to it, yet even it has received a place in the cunningly-devised mosaic of the Brahmans, and the devils have got themselves regarded as abnormal developments of the gods.

It is one of the peculiar difficulties that Christianity has to encounter in dealing with Hindus of the higher and middle castes, that the religion of the country is so closely intertwined with the usages of Hindu society. The more punctilious a high-caste Hindu is in the performance of his religious ceremonies, and in the maintenance of his caste purity and exclusiveness, the higher are supposed to be his claims to social respectability. It is not necessary for him to be a believer in the doctrines of his religien; but it is absolutely necessary, if he is a man of " good caste" and in affluent circumstances, that he should carefully practise all its rites. He cannot keep his place in society, he cannot claim to be regarded as a gentleman, without affecting to be superstitious. A poor low-caste man may be as careless as he likes about his religious duties ; but one who occupies a respectable position in society cannot choose but show himself ceremonious, just as an English gentleman cannot choose but live in a style appropriate to his rank. Hence, to propose to a Hindu of respectability to abandon all the usages of his sect and caste, and embrace a foreign religion, sounds in his ear like asking him to abandon the pro prieties of life and become a Pariar. No class of people are so enslaved to custom and precedent as those who are wealthy and luxurious without being enlightened.

Another difficulty in the way of the spread of the Gospel amongst that class is owing to the tyranny of caste. A caste man may, indeed, become a Christian after a fashion without giving up his caste, though he cannot become a Christian without ceasing to be respectable ; but if he should be so thoroughly con vinced of the truth of Christianity, and so completely disen thralled by it, as to determine to give up not only his false creed, but his caste exclusiveness, he must be content to suffer not only the loss of social status, but the loss of everything which life holds dear. The government, indeed, will protect his person and his life; it has recently guaranteed to him also his right to his paternal inheritance, and so far his condition is better than that of converts to Christianity under the Roman Emperors ; but the Government cannot protect him from being abandoned by his relations, excluded for ever from the society of his equals, and condemned to life-long reproach and disgrace.

"W hat to require of a caste man on his becoming a Christian, is a perplexed question involved in many difficulties. If he is required, as he now generally is, to give up caste at once and submit to social excommunication, other persons similarly situated are deterred from following his example, notwithstanding their conviction of the truth of Christianity, and thus the narrow entrance to the way of life is made narrower : if, on the other hand, he is received into the Church without giving up caste, in the expectation that this part of his duty as a Christian will be fulfilled at some future period, when he has obtained more light and strength, it is found that the caste usages and unsocial dis tinctions that have been retained the Canaanites that have been spared in the land wax stronger, instead of weaker, every year, and at length begin to pave the way for the re-introduction of heathenism.

Amongst the Sudra or middle-class portion of the population of Tinnevelly, Christianity has made, as yet, but little progress. Of the 43,000 converts who are registered in our church-lists, not more than a thousand are members of that class, "and the majority of that thousand belong to the lowest division of it. The Sudra inhabitants of Tinnevelly have not embraced Christianity more generally, or shown themselves better disposed towards it, than persons belonging to similar castes in other provinces. On the contrary, much greater progress was made amongst persons of this class in Tanjore by Swartz and his immediate successors. It is amongst the Sh&na'rs, or palmyra cultivators, a caste which is almost restricted to Tinnevelly and South Travancore, that Christianity has made most progress ; and though the movement has extended to some other castes, higher and lower in the social scale, almost all the missionary results for which Tinnevelly is famous have been accomplished amongst the Shanars. Shana"r Christianity still forms the staple of the Christianity of Tinnevelly.

In some respects the position of the Shanars in the scale of castes is peculiar. Their abstinence from spirituous liquors and from beef, and the circumstance that their widows are not allowed to marry again, connect them with the Sudra group of castes. On the other hand, they are]not allowed, as allSudras are, to enter the temples ; and where old native usages still prevail, they are not allowed even to enter the courts of justice, but are obliged to offer their prayers to the gods and their complaints to the magistrates outside, and their women, like those of the castes still lower, are obliged to go uncovered from the waist upwards. These circum stances connect them with the group of castes inferior to the Sudras ; but if they musfc be classed with that group, they are undoubtedly to be regarded as forming the highest division of it. A considerable proportion of the Shanars are owners of the land they cultivate, many are engaged in trade, and some of both those classes are wealthy, as wealth is estimated amongst peasantry ; whilst one family, being Zemindars, is entitled to be classed with the gentry of the province. All of them are, in some shape or another, engaged in the cultivation of the palmyra, and perhaps the majority are employed in climbing that tree. Though the Sh&n&rs rank as a caste with the lower classes, and though the greater number of them earn their daily bread by their daily labour, pauperism is almost unknown amongst them. Of the great majority it may be said, that they are equally removed from the temptations of poverty and riches, equally removed from the superficial polish and subtle rationalism of the higher castes, and from the filthy habits and almost hopeless degradation of the agricultural slaves. Few of them before their conversion to Christianity are found to be able to read ; and as they form almost the entire population in those districts in which they reside, with little or no opportunity of intercourse with the better-educated classes, their reception of the Gospel is, in most instances, the commencement not only of their spiritual life, but of their intellectual cultivation. Christianity generally finds their minds undeveloped and their manners almost as rude as their ideas, but it does not leave them in the condition in which it finds them. It is the glory of the Gospel that it elevates the social, mental, and moral condition of every people by whom it is embraced, and as the Shanars are by no means deficient in prac tical shrewdness, and are peculiarly willing to be taught, guided, and modelled by those in whom they confide, when once they are induced to embrace Christianity with a sincere faith, the progress they make is peculiarly steady and satisfactory.

In many respects their character is as peculiar as their social position. They are peculiarly docile and tractable, peculiarly fitted to appreciate the advantages of sympathy, guidance, and protection, and peculiarly accessible to Christian influences. Though inferior to many of their neighbours in intellectual attainments, they are by no means inferior to them in sincerity. Their chief faults dissimulation, litigiousness, and avarice are the faults of all Hindus ; but with respect, at least, to dissimula tion, the first and worst of those faults, experience testifies that of all Hindus they are the least guilty. The strong points of the Hindu character are patience, good humour, and natural courtesy, and in these particulars the Shanars are quite on a level with the rest of the Hindus. Less polished than their neighbours, they are not less courteous ; less lively, they are not less good- humoured ; and as for patience, they have been so oppressed and Harassed ever since they were a people, that it is too frequently taken for granted that their patience has no limits. Hence if. their position in the scale of intellect and attainment must be admitted to be low, perhaps no caste of Hindus occupies, as a caste, a more respectable position as regards the moral elements of character. They are a timid people, much exposed to the rapacity of their high-caste neighbours and landlords, and greatly wanting in self-reliance. Accustomed to be led, they are re luctant to be left to themselves, and reluctant to take any step alone. Very sensitive and touchy with respect to the honour due to their caste, that is, to their combined personality, they are apt to resort to combinations for the purpose of gaining caste- privileges, or revenging caste-injuries ; and though individually they are easily influenced, there are no combinations more diffi cult to break or more impracticable than theirs. However convinced of the truth of Christianity they may be, they can rarely be persuaded to act upon their own convictions indepen dently of the course of conduct adopted by their neighbours. They prefer to wait till a party has been formed, and if the party becomes tolerably strong, it then not only dares to act for itself, but often brings with it the entire village community. When a movement of this sort is in progress, nobody likes to anticipate his neighbours, and nobody likes to be left behind.

Most of the peculiarities of the social condition and character of the Shanars, which have now been mentioned, have worked together for their good, and have contributed either to the recep tion of Christianity by members of this caste, or to their growth, in Christian propriety and order after their reception of it. Obstacles which exist elsewhere have no place amongst them, and facilities abound amongst them which are rarely met with else where. We learn from the parable of the Sower, that the different results which attended the preaching of the Gospel in different places were owing, not to the seed, for the seed was in every instance the same, the good seed of the Word, nor to the sower, for the sower was the Lord Jesus Himself, but to differ ences in the soil. Now, amongst the Shanars of Tinnevelly we have the advantage of having a good soil to labour in. In this instance, as amongst the Karens of Burmah, the seed sown amongst a peculiar class of people has brought forth [fruit in peculiar abundance. God's providence may here be observed making straight in the desert a highway for His Gospel, making ready a people " prepared for the Lord," prepared to appreciate Christian teaching and guidance, and prepared to profit by Christian discipline.

The chief peculiarity in the social condition of the Shanars prior to their reception of Christianity was the prevalence amongst them of demonolatry, or the worship of evil spirits. The popular superstitions of the Hindus may be divided into two classes ; viz., the higher or more classical Hinduism, consisting in the worship of the gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines of the Brah- manical Pantheon, and the lower or pre-Brahmanical superstition, deriving its origin from the early inhabitants of India, and con sisting in the worship of devils. A similar demonolatry prevailed amongst the Mongols before their conversion to Buddhism, and amongst the Turks before their conversion to Mahometanism, and survives up to the present day amongst the Ostiaka and other heathen tribes in Siberia. In India, demonolatry is the religion of most of the rude inhabitants of the mountains and pestilential jungles ; and in the provinces in the extreme south, which are farthest removed from the original centres of Brahmanical influence, it prevails even amongst the civilized and partially Brahmanized peasantry. Nowhere does it prevail to a greater extent than in Tinnevelly, where it constitutes the religion of the Shanars and of the whole of the lower classes, and enters very largely into the religion of the middle classes. It was from Tinnevelly or the neighbour hood that demonolatry passed over into Ceylon, where it is mixed up with the Buddhism of the Singhalese. Amongst the middle classes in Tinnevelly demonolatry has received a Brahmanical shape, and pretends to be the worship not of the enemies of the gods, but of sanguinary emanations and energies of the supreme divinities ; but amongst the lower classes it wears no such screen and puts forth no plausible explanations it presents itself as devil-worship " pure and simple." It is true that even the lower classes offer a little passing reverence to the ordinary deities of the country, especially to Subrahmanya, a son of Siva, who has from a very ancient period been the favourite deity of Tinnevelly; but the only worship which they form into a system, the only system which can be styled their religion, the only religion, which has any real hold of their minds, is demonolatry.

The essential features of the demonolatry of Siberia, commonly called Shamanism, and of the demonolatry of Tinnevelly, are identical. Neither system knows anything of a regular priest hood. Ordinarily the head of the family, or the head man of the community, performs the priestly office ; but any worshipper, male or female, who feels disposed, may volunteer to officiate, and the office may at any time be laid aside. Neither amongst the Shamanites, nor amongst the demonolaters of India, is there any belief in the transmigration of souls. Both systems acknowledge in vague terms the existence of a Supreme God ; but they agree in the notion that, if He does exist, He is too good to do people harm, and it is therefore unnecessary to offer Him any kind of worship. The objects of worship in both systems are neither gods nor heroes, but demons, which are supposed to have got the actual administration of the affairs of the world into their hands ; and those demons are so numerous and cunning, so capricious and malicious and powerful, that it is necessary to worship them very sedulously to keep them from doing people mischief.

In Tinnevelly, as in Siberia, bloody sacrifices are offered to appease the anger of the demons ; but the most important and essential feature in the worship of all demonolaters is " the devil- dance." The officiating priest, or " devil- dancer," who wishes to represent the demon, sings and dances himself into a state of wild frenzy, and leads the people to suppose that the demon they are worshipping has taken possession of him ; after which he communicates, to those who consult him, the information he has received. The fanatical excitement which the devil-dance awakens constitutes the chief strength and charm of the system, and is peculiarly attractive to the dull perceptions of illiterate, half- civilized tribes. The votaries of this system are the most sincerely superstitious people in India. There is much ceremony, but little sincerity, in the more plausible religion of the higher classes ; but the demonolaters literally " believe and tremble." In times of sickness, especially during the prevalence of cholera, it is astonishing with what eagerness, earnestness, and anxiety the lower classes worship their demons.

It might naturally be supposed that a pure and spiritual religion, like Christianity, would make little progress amongst a people who are so besotted as to worship devils ; yet in Tinne velly and the neighbouring provinces it has made greater pro gress amongst demonolaters than amongst the followers of the higher Hinduism. The exceeding greatness of the contrast between the fear and gloom of devil-worship and the light and love of the Gospel is found to attract their attention, and it is generally found to be easy to convince them of the debasing character of their own superstition, and of the great superiority of Christianity. We have gone amongst those poor demonolaters as preachers of a religion of mercy, as preachers of " peace on earth and good will to men," and have endeavoured to illustrate its beneficent tendencies by doing them all the good in our power, and especially such good as they could appreciate. We have assured them that God has not abandoned the world He made, but rules it Himself, and is as merciful as He is powerful ; we have given them this convincing proof of His mercy, that " He so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life :" we have told them also that it is unnecessary, as well as wrong, to worship devils, through any fear of their malice ; for the Son of God was "manifested" for this very pur pose, " that He might destroy the works of the devil" " by dying He destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and delivered those who through fear of death were all their life- time subject to bondage;" so that if they only put their trust in Him, and feared and served Him, he would defend them from all that devils can do. And when they have been induced to listen to these statements and to ponder them in their minds, it has generally been found that of all heathens in India, they are the most ready to throw off the shackles of their slavish fear, and to enter into the enjoyment of the liberty of the children of God. Thus the progress of the Gospel in Tinnevelly has supplied us with another illustration of the truth, that " where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." In a province where devils were literally the objects of worship " where Satan's seat was" the Church of God has received larger accessions of converts than in any other province in India. In Tinuevelly the Church " flourishes like the palmyra" flourishes where perpetual barrenness might have been expected to reign. Hay I not also say that the position which the Shnrs have acquired in the fore-front of Hindu Christianity, notwithstanding their poverty, their want of mental culture, and their lowly rank as a caste, fulfils the prediction, that " there are last which shall be first?"

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Page:A dictionary of the Sunda language of Java.djvu/259

 , Iwung or young sprouts of Bambu, put in the water to soak before boiling
 * for eating. The young bambu sprouts so soaked.

, a large pan for boiling in. A cauldron.  , said of the leaves of forest trees, which have been cut down, and which rot and
 * drop off from long continued rain, before the whole can be burnt.

, a tree with white, hard, good wood, also called Kayu arak, Vitex leucoxylon.

, the great Mohammedan festival held at the new moon, on the expiration of
 * the Puasa or fasting month. (Batav. Lĕbaran. Jav. Lĕbar, to be at the end; vanished.
 * Thus Lĕbaran the end of the fasting month; puasa = Ser. upavâsa, fast, fasting. Fr.)

, a Mohammedan festival held on the 10th. of the month of Haji, after
 * two days fasting, which fasting is, however, observed only by the very strict part of
 * the population, and not by the masses. This is the time when the pilgrims at Mecca
 * collect to perform certain ceremonies, and obtain the right of becoming a Haji, and
 * thus to wear a white turban.

, said of any vessel which is so full of water or other liquid, that with the
 * least motion it runs over. Susukan kurang jĕro, labar - lébér sapanjang na, the canal
 * wants deepening, the water runs over along the whole length of it.

, the spot where the Luluhur (which see) is to be conciliated, which is generally
 * on some mountain top, as if he had left his mark there, which is frequently imagined
 * to be the case, from finding there some vestiges of ancient times. Impression, mark;
 * ancient vestige.

, the shrouds of a ship, the ropes which support the mast.

, a gourd, a Calabash; Cucurbita lagenaria. Labu, C. 604 a gourd, a pumpkin.
 * (Jav, L*wu Scr. Liwu idem.)

, to slip and fall on the ground, as a man in walking. To bring to, as a ship;
 * to anchor. (Mal. idem. Jav. Mal. to let fall, to anchor.)

, holes which are found sunk in the ground naturally, especially where
 * limestone formations prevail with natural cavities. The words Labuhan-bulan mean,
 * anchorage place of the moon, thereby indicating that the native fancies that these holes
 * have been caused by the moon going to rest there. Similar holes occur in limestone
 * districts in England where they are called Shake -holes.

, to pour out, to start, as grain, rice or similar matter emptied out of a bag upon
 * the ground or floor of a store.

, mark, trace, track of a man or of any animal on the ground. (Jav. idem.)

, disappointed in getting anything. Anything tried for in vain.

, peppery, pungent. Lada, C. 606, the beetle creeper. Lada in Malay is pepper,
 * which in Sunda is called Pĕdĕs. Sirĕum lada, a black variety of ant found on trees
 * whose bite is pungent.

, having a peppery pungent taste- being warm and pungent.

, the money or other goods got in exchange for anything sold. Ladang paré,
 * the money got by selling paddy. Ladang kuda di paké mĕuli kĕbo, the sale money of
 * the horse was used to buy a buffaloe.


text:
Page:A dictionary of the Sunda language of Java.djvu/285

264 Mahomét, vide Mohammad.

Mahugi, to make love- presents; to carry presents to the intended one.

Maido, to disbelieve, not to put trust in. Sok maido lamun ka kula, he never believes what I say. See Paido.

Main, to play, to have motion as a piece of machinery. To play for money, to gamble. To play- in the sense of seeking amusement, is not main in Sunda, as in Malay, but Ulin.

Maisa, a title applied to the ancient chiefs or kings on Java, both at Janggala and Pajajaran. As Maisa Laléan occurs at the former place Raffles Vol 2 Page 94 and Browijaya Maisa Tandraman occurs at the latter. Raffles Vol. 2 page 96. The word means buffaloe. Mahisā., C. 533, a buflaloe. Mahisha, C. 533 from Maha, to worship; a buflaloe, the emblem and vehicle of Yama the name of an Asura or demon slain by Durga. Mahishi, C 533. a female buffaloe; the wife of a king, but especially the one who has been consecrated or crowned. A queen.
 * Mahisa or kĕbo, both words implying buflaloe, are ancient appellations of the Kshatryas on Java. Friederich, Bat Trans. Vol. 23 page 21.

Maisa, is a title of some of the Chiefs in early Javanese history. Thus we have Kuda or Maisa Laléan, to whom one of the discrepant accounts ascribes the foundation of Pajajaran. He is said to have tamed the buflaloe to the yoke, from which circumstance he was called Maisa or the buflaloe, whilst his decendants went by that of Munding, which is the buflaloe in colloquial Sunda. Maisa, however, is no doubt the Mahésa of Clough Page 534, from Maha, great, and Isa, Lord, or god, and as such an appellation of Siwa, which cognomen had been applied to a distinguished prince who had either founded a new empire or taught the people the use of agriculture. Maisa, a name of Siwa, might have been applied to the buffaloe as taking the place of the sacred bull of that deity, which is still observable in some of the old monumental ruins in Eastern Java.
 * Mahésa, however the case may be, passed for a buffaloe in ancient Javanese times, thus we have Mahesasura, the demon in the form of a buffaloe slain by the Hindu goddess Durga.

Maja, a large forest tree, with reticulate and aromatic fruit. Aromadendron elegans.

Maja, a liane which produces a round fruit of the size of a man's fist, Crataeva marmelos, has a hard shell, but contains a soft inside, which can be easily removed like the contents of an egg. The word has a Sanscritical sound, and from the nature of the fruit may be so called from Majja, C. 505. marrow, pith, sap. From this Maja, the old capital of Java—Majapahit, derived its name (Majapahit is a translation of Wilwa-tikta, the Scr. name of the same place. Wilwa is Aegle marmelos, tikta is the same as the Polynesian pahit, bitter. Fr).

Maja, used in the expression. Nista, maja, utama, three methods of warning which are considered by the natives as a sufficient display of patience. The Maja in this case


text: Eight Harvard Poets/A Sea Gull

title: Eight Harvard Poets/A Sea Gull


text:
Page:A dictionary of the Sunda language of Java.djvu/537

516 :pouring out of melted metal. Tuwangan tambaga, brass castings. Bĕusi tuwangan, smelting iron, pig iron.

Tuwar, to cut down. The same as Tuar, which see.

Tuwĕr, the knee. Tuwĕr na ngadégdég, his knees trembled.

Tuyun, to lead, to conduct, to take by the hand. To lead as a blind man.

Uah, uncle or aunt, when older than the parents of the person using the expression. See Toa, Paman an and Mama. A term of respect in addressing an elder. In Malay the expression Uwa also occurs for uncle or aunt, which Marsden fancies to be an infantine corruption of Tuah, page 20.

Uar, to give public notice, to proclaim. To inform, to apprize. Di uarkĕn ka batur, to apprize the neighbours. Gĕus uar ka sakuliah jagat, the entire country has been apprized.

Uatah, new, not yet used, untouched; said of anything which has not yet been put to the purpose for which it is intended. Jamang uatah, an unworn jacket. Pachul uatah, an unused hoe.

Uatahkĕn, to leave untouched, to reserve in good order. Not to make use of but to reserve for future use.

Ubal, to twist yarn or thread, so as to lay several strands together. This is done with a few very simple implements.

Ubar, medicine, physic. Drugs. Remedy. Naun ubar na, what is the medicine for it. How can it be cured.

Ubaran, to give medicine to. To administer medicine, which is often attended with charms and spells. Ubaran manéh ka gunung, he has gone to the mountains to get himself cured.

Ubĕd, tied round and round with string or rattan. To twist a string so often, and so close round a stick or other object, that it is hidden from view and nothing but the string left visible. See Bĕbĕd.

Ubĕr, to chase, to worry out, to ransack a jungle for wild animals. To thoroughly annoy. To give no peace to. To importune.

Ubĕs, investigated, thorougly searched. Examined in all parts. Ubĕs lĕuwĕung na di saksĕrakan, the forest was thoroughly searched by hunting through it.

Uchap, to say, to speak, to utter a word. Uchap na, his saying, or what he said. Kumaha uchap na, how was his saying, what has he said.

Uching, a cat, the domestic cat. Felis domestica. Called in Malay Kuching.

Uchul, let go, leave off holding, loosened, untied, disentangled. Departing from any place. Uchul tali na ayĕunah, let go the rope now. Uchul ti lumbur gĕus téng'ang'ni, when we left the village it was noon.


text: Eight Harvard Poets/Domesday

title: Eight Harvard Poets/Domesday


text: Eight Harvard Poets/Elegy for Antinous

title: Eight Harvard Poets/Elegy for Antinous


text: Eight Harvard Poets/Song

title: Eight Harvard Poets/Song


text: Eight Harvard Poets/My Peace I Leave with You


text: Eight Harvard Poets/The Recompense

title: Eight Harvard Poets/The Recompense


text: Eight Harvard Poets/Poppy Song

title: Eight Harvard Poets/Poppy Song


text:
Page:A dictionary of the Sunda language of Java.djvu/260

Rh Ladén, to oppose, to fight, to encounter in battle. To be ready to receive an attack. (Jav. jav character, ngladénni, Bat. ladénin, to deliver; to serve; to bring on the table.)

Ladog, and Ladogan, to stroll about the country- to become a vagabond.

Ladog, a Rhinoceros; also called Badak and Gandol.

Lafal, an arabic word used to imply, text of the Koran, or authentic reading. Lefetl, arabic, Marsden Page 303, pronunciation, a word pronounced, a vocable. Jaba saking lafal, not in the text. Said playfully of anything done for which there is no express permission. (لفظ, Laftz, or Laftl, vox, vocabulum.)

Laga, antics, tricks, deceitful pretence; resistence, see lalaga. In composition of proper names, it means, war, battle. (In the first acceptation it resembles Jav. Balin. Kawi Lěga, to be at ease, to live according to one’s inclination, a way, in which monkeys children and natives are always prone to do mischief. Batav. Laga, Malaga.-Laga Kawi. Jav. war. Fr.)

Lagé, a kind of native game danced or gone through by a number of men to the sound of the gamelan or angklung.

Lagu, tune, tone of music; an air. Used often to express the tone or tune of how matters stand. Lagu na kudu di akutan kuorang his tune is that we must carry it away. This word is said to be Sanscrit. Lagu and Laghu, C. 603, light , soft, easy, swift, speedy.

Lah, an exclamation of impatience, or indignity.

Laha, a séro or plalted and wattled frame of bambu for taking fish; a wattling of sticks and lianes to carry earth with, called also Sampéong. A screen for a house made of split bambu and hung at doorways or in open verandahs.

Lahan, a plot or space of ground. Lahan Sawah, a plot of sawah land.

Lahang, teddy, the palm wine or juice which exudes from the fruit stem when beat and cut for that purpose. Called in Malay Tuwak.

Lahir, arabic, come into the world, born; to become manifest, visible, manifest. What is seen and understood. (ظا حر Tzàhir or Thlâhir, apparens, conspicuus.)

Lahun, to take in the arms and fondle as a child. to swing backwards and forwards in the arms.

Lai, an idiomatic expression applied to the bending of soft iron especially.

Lain, other, different. It is not so. (Mal. idem. Kawi also Lian, Bat. Len.)

Lainkěn, to make different, to alter, to change; to separate, to part.

Lair or Layěr, pendulons, hanging down at length, dangling. The reverse of Purĕk, which see. Long as a rope.

Lairan, to ease off, give length of cord.

Laja, a scitameneous plant, Alpinia Galanga. Lāja, C. 606 the root of the Andropogon muricatum. Called in Malay Langkwas.

Laja-goah, a scitameneous plant, Alpinia Malaccensis.

Lajéran, to tie up a plant or bush to a stake in order to support it. (Jav. Lajĕr, the Principal root cf. a tree; support, chief)


text:
Page:A dictionary of the Sunda language of Java.djvu/506

Rh Tariti, name of a forest-tree. Tarietia Javanica.

Tarka or těrka. Divination. To accuse a man from feeling convinced that he has done some wrong, but not having the means of proof. To suspect and charge with. Tarkaka, C. 224, logic, the science of disputation, reasoning; argumentation.

Tarok, to give a blow on the head, to knock on the head of man or beast. Also to give a blow to a cocoa-nut, so as to split it, which must be with a cutting instrument.

Taroktok, to make a rattling sound by knocking two pieces of split bambu against each other, as done in some devices for frightening away wild pigs or birds, etc. from growing crops. The apparatus for making the above noise.

Tartib, to make arrangements so that a thing may be done well and without accident. To work with judgement.

Tartil, to speak clearly and explicitly. To give orders clearly, so that no mistake can be made. To tell a story from beginning to end very clearly.

Taruhan, wager, stake at gambling.

Tarum, the same as Tarung, to meet and fall upon; to attack at once.

Tarum, the indigo-plant, Indigofera Tinctoria. Planted from seed. Chitarum, Indigo river, name of a large river falling into the sea at Krawang Point. Tarum-arĕui, the liane-indigo, much used by the mountaineers of Sunda. Marsdenia Parviflora.

Tarum-kĕmbang, a variety of indigo planted from cuttings, literally the flower-indigo. Indigofera Anil.

Tarumpah, a sandal or sole of any matter, often made of bark, or a bit of hide, worn under the sole of the foot, and tied with strings round the instep and ankle.

Taruna, a young man, a youth. More generally used as a proper name. Taruna, C. 223, young, youthful, juvenile, — a young man, a youth.

Tarung, to set upon; to attack without any palaver. To overtake an enemy and at once attack him.

Tasbé, Arabic, a rosiary carried by pious Mohammedans, on which they count their prayers, after the fashion of Roman Catholics.

Tasbé, a scitameneous plant which red flower and round black seeds, from which were probably made the rosiaries, though the seeds are rather too small for the purpose. It is the Canna Indica.

Tasik, this word only occurs, as far as I can learn, in one solitary instance in the Sunda language, and that is to form a proper name; viz in the Preanger Regencies, on the banks of the Chitandui, and south of the mountain Talaga Bodas, occurs Tasik Malaya, and thus inland and at a considerable distance from the sea. Tasi and Tasik, in many languages of the Archipelago, and throughout the Pacific, mean the Sea, and even in Javanese the word Tasik is found meaning a lake, the sea. The Ta may be the very common Polynesian negative, No, not, called in Sunda To. Sik or Sika may be the Singhalese Sikha, C. 731, point, top in general; a crest. Thus


text: Eight Harvard Poets/Love Dream

title: Eight Harvard Poets/Love Dream


text:
Page:A dictionary of the Sunda language of Java.djvu/286

Rh appears to be a form of majakkha, C. 505, the middle, the centre- thus a first warning, a middle warning, and a final warning, with which its position in the aphorism corresponds. (Maja is here a corruption of madhya, middle. Cf. Oesana Bali in „Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indie“ Vol. IX. Part. 3 pag. 340. Fr).

Majakani, gall nuts, imported from Persia. Majja, C. 505, the marrow of the bones, pith, sap. Khani, C. 158 the Sun.

Majapahit, the name of an Empire on Java, towards its eastern extremity, before the introduction of Mohammedanism. Majapahit has its name from Maja, the fruit Crataeva marmelos, and Pahit bitter, Raffles Vol 2 page 98. The date of the foundation of Majapahit was Anno Javae 1221, to which must be added 78 years giving A. D. 1299. It was destroyed on the introduction of Mohammedanism at the close of the 15 Century. The ruins and remains of Majapahit are still found near Mojokĕrto in the residency of Sourabaya.

Majĕr, to have an idea, to be of opinion, to have an objection. Most commonly used along with Manéh, self, as majĕr maneh to make an objection, to suggest an idea. To bisa majĕr manéh he must comply, he can bring no objection, he can suggest no opposition.

Majir, a female animal, especially a buffaloe, which will not breed, will not bear young, but being generally fat and in good condition is frequently chosen to slaughter.

Maju, to go forward, to advance, to proceed. Maju ka jĕro, to proceed inwards. To tulus maju ka lĕuwĕung, the going into the forest did not take place. (Jav. Batav. idem.)

Maju and Majuhan, to eat greedily, to guzzle. (Kawi Majuh, to eat Gericke.)

Majum, oakum, made either of untwisted rope, or of the scrapings of dry bambus. (Chinese.)

Maka, let it be, cause to be. Maka ka jauh, cause it to go to a distance. Maka luhur, let it be high. Ulah maka ka mana mana, maka dĕukĕul, D'ontDon't [sic] get yourself out of the way, remain near- or more literally d'ontdon't [sic] cause yourself to go any where, let you be near. (Jav. Mongka and; now. Mal. Maka, and.)

Makasar, a nation and town on the west coast of Celebes, called by the natives themselves mangkasara.

Makaya, to excercise a trade or calling, to do something to gain a livelyhood. (From Kaya, Jav. goods, means. Mal. rich.)

Makbul, conceding, a prayer granted—getting what we pray for. (Arabic, مَقْبُولٌ maqbûl, acceptus, gratus.)

Makul, appropriate, convenient, fitted for the purpose, suitable. Makul, aribic, just, reasonable. Crawfurd. مَعْقُولٌ Ma'qûl.)

Makuta, a crown, a diadem. Makuta, C. 503, a crown, a headdress, a tiara. (Sct. Makuta and Mukuta).

Mal, corpus delicti in law questions. Some tangible proof of a crime or offence committed, as the goods stolen, the weapon with which a wound was given, or the like. (Perhaps مَالُ Mâl, property).


text:
Page:A dictionary of the Sunda language of Java.djvu/262

Rh Lakukěn, to accept or admit as possible; to put up with; to make use of for want of better. Lalab, all kinds of green vegetable matter, as leaves or tender shoots, used as food or eaten. Greens in general. Vide Sayur. (Lalab Jav. according to Gericke - unripe fruit and leaves, eaten by the Javanese. At Batavia the meaning is the same with that given in this article. Fr.)

Lalaga, to play antics; to play tricks with, to make a pretence of resisting, to show fight. (See Laga). Lalai, a bat, Rhinolophus vulgaris, called also Vespertilio. (Bal. lalawa). Lalaki, a male, a man. Owoh lalakian di imah, is there no man in the house. When Lalaki is used alone, it means a man; but it is also often applied to distinguish the male from the female of animals. Kuda na dua, lalaki na siji, awewe na siji. There were two horses, one male, and one female. Lalakon, as the thing turns out, in this posture of affairs, under these circumstances, seeing that. (See laku) Lalamakan, the paunch of a ruminant animal, the tripe. Lalang'itan, the palate of the mouth; an awning, a canopy. From Lang'it, the sky.

Lalangsé, Bed- curtains. (Jav. Balin. langsé, lalangsé idem.) Lalar, a fly, the common house fly. Musca. (Jav. lalér. Mal. lâlat).

Lalaunan, slowly, gently, carefully. (See laun).

Lalawak, a variety of fresh water river fish, so called at Buitenzorg. It is also called Raranchak at Jasinga and in other places. Lalawora, talk in fun, not in earnest; a joke; carelessly, without attention, with indifference. Ulah sok lalawora di gawé, don't be working so carelessly. Omong téa sok lalawora bai, his talk is often in a joke (not really meant). Lalayatan, the rail of a bridge; any object fixed so as to be used, or to hold on by, in crossing a difficult pass, as over a river, ditches or the like. Laléan, also called Maisa or Kuda Laléan, a grandson of the celebrated Panji. One of the early princes of Pajajaran, and a great promoter of agriculture in the Sunda districts, having tamed the buffaloe to the joke. Raffles Vol. 2 Page 94/96. Lalěmahan, in spots, only in places; only to be found in certain spots. (Lĕmah Jav. Balin. ground, spot, earth.) Lalĕmpĕr, boiled ketan rice put up in leaves, as retailed in small quantities. Laléngkahan, a stick or bit of wood laid over a ditch by which to pass.

Lalĕr, to pass along, to be in the neighbourhood of. Lalĕr liwat, to frequently pass by; to be in the neighbourhood but to pass by without stopping. Hanto ngalalĕr kadinyo, I did not go into that neighbourhood.

Lalĕumpangan, to go away together. Gĕus lalĕumpangan, they have all gone away together. Laléwa, playing, trifling, making fun, nonsense, monkey tricks.


text: Eight Harvard Poets/The Island of Death

title: Eight Harvard Poets/The Island of Death


text:
User:Ariaenggar

Aria Enggar Pamungkas (7 Maret 1990) adalah seorang anggota Wikimedia Indonesia, dia tinggal di Bandung, Jawa Barat, Indonesia. Dia sekarang sedang menempuh pendidikan S1 di Universitas Widyatama, di jurusan Teknik Informatika. Sekarang dia mulai berkontribusi mengkoreksi Kamus bahasa Sunda-Inggris.

title: User:Ariaenggar


text:
Page:A dictionary of the Sunda language of Java.djvu/507

486 some thing without top, point or crest; the boundless ocean. Or it may be the same Ta negative, and Si of Sima, C. 741, boundary, limit, bank, shore. The Ma being constructive. See Sisi. Thus again something „without limit or bank.“ The Sunda people have, however, adhered to the word Laut for sea, which see, and which is also of Sanscrit origin, though the name of so common an object. Tasik would appear also to be Malay. MARSDEN, page 64, gives: „Tasek, a sea, inland sea or great lake; a large piece of water.“ CRAWFURD, at page 184, gives: „Tasik, the sea, the ocean; a great lake or inland sea“. Tasma, Persian chasmah, spectacles, glasses for the eyes.

Tata, manners, address, conduct in company. Due respect to superiors. Perhaps from Tatha, C. 219, so, thus, in like manner. To nyaho di tata, he does not know how to conduct himself. He is ill-mannered.

Tataban, planks for putting round a corpse in the grave.

Tatabéan, making compliments. Offering the greeting called Tabé.

Tatabĕuhan, musical instruments which are struck as gongs, drums and the like.

Tatag, to hack and score the bark of a tree in order that the gummy matter may flow out.

Tatah, a chisel, a carpenter's tool. Di tatah, or tatahan, to chisel, to cut with a chisel. To enchase. To cut ornaments on precious metals.

Tatajuran, plantations. Fruit-trees planted expressly by man.

Tatal, a chip of wood. Anything chipped off.

Tatalén, a quarter of a guilder or 25 doits. Also the silver coin which is ʄ ¼, and thus has a value of 30 doits or more. Tatalén is a word derived from Tali, a rope, by duplicating the first syllable and adding an, which following the vowel i becomes én. The word occurring in this shape in Sunda confirms CRAWFURD'S note to Tali, who after stating that in Malay it means ⅛ of a Spanish dollar, says: — „It is probable that Tali is derived from Tali, a rope, and has reference to the practice of filing a certain number of small coins on a string, which, judging by the hole in the centre of all ancient Javanese coins, appears to have prevailed in the Archipelago as well as in China.“

Tataman, small black ants, somewhat smaller than the true Taman. It bites very fiercely when trod amongst, but the pain soon goes off.

Tatangga, neighbour, neighbouring. People whose steps to their houses, Tangga, are near our own steps. All the houses of the natives are reached by mounting steps. Tangga for steps is Malay, not Sunda. The Sunda people call the steps and landing place before a house door Jodog, and the steps or ladder of this Jodog are called Tarajé. The etymon of Tatangga is therefore borrowed, or has become obsolete. The word is still retained in the compound form of Imah tangga. See Tangga.

Tatanggalan, the first 15 days of the moon are so called, but cease with full moon.

Tatarub, a hut. A temporary shed, when out in the forest, made to pass the night in.

Tataruhan, to wager, to stake, to bet. To put down a stake.

Tatu, to tattoo. To mark the body by pricking and rubbing in some black colouring matter.


text: Eight Harvard Poets/From the Arabian Nights


text: User:Irfa Rizke Annisa

title: User:Irfa Rizke Annisa


text:
Page:A dictionary of the Sunda language of Java.djvu/290

Rh Manchak, ground disposed in consecutive flats, like the steps of stairs.

Manchal, said of water which rises in a flood and overflows the land. Chai na manchal ka darat, the water rose and overflowed the land. To jump up, to hop.

Manchal, said of a woman who goes to the priest and asks to be divorced form her husband. Probably a simile taken from the foregoing word and expressive of an unnatural course of events. Manchas, a method of taking fish, by enticing them into an enclosure, which can be shut up when the fish are in, so as to prevent escape, when they may easily be groped out.

Manchat, to climb up, to scramble up, to ascend.

Manchĕr, and manchĕran, said of the sun when in the zenith. Right over head. Mata poi manchĕran téng'ang'ni, sun stood right in the zenith or overhead; exactly noon.

Manching, to fish for news, to try to get information slyly. The Malay word Panching, to fish with a hook, is not in use in Sunda, as the people use instead Usĕp; but the derivative simile is of frequent occurence.

Manchirang, the flower of the Tĕpus or Geanthus Coccineus; it grows not upon the stem of the plant, but from the root, and shows itself sessile on the ground near the root of the Těpus; it is a pretty scarlet and yellow flower. Manchuh, presents made to the parents of an intended wife by way of securing her.

Manehung, the spatha of a Palm fruit, the case which envelops the unexpanded spadix. When these are dry, they are collected and being tied together, serve as flambeaux.

Manchung, a hooked nose. What is called a Roman nose.

Mandala, a Sanscrit word often used in the composition of proper names. Tt is evidently Sanscrit word mandala, C. 507, the disk of the sun or moon; an orb, a ball, a globe, a wheel ; a province, a region , a district; a assemblage; a sort of mystical diagram.

Mandala giri, is the Pantun name by which the Jasinga mountain, usually called the Gunung Gĕdé, is known ; it is thus the mountain of the province , or the orb mountain, from not forming part of a chain.

Mandapa, a porch, a portico, an open hall. (Scr. In Javanese Pandoppo).

Mandĕg, to hault, to stop, to cease. (Jav. Balin. Adĕg, Madĕg, standing, exercising power, reigning).

Mandi, to bathe, to dip the body in water. Nanawa, C. 318 bathe; Nanta, to bathe. Nandá, C. 308, the tank of Sakra in the garden of Swarga or the region of the gods, in which that god is accustomed to bathe. (Mai. idem. Bal. Mandus. Kw. Madyus. Jav. Adus or Dus). Mandian, to bathe or wash another person, as a child. To wash a dead person preparatory to burial. Mandor, a native headman, a village chief. A foreman over work. It is the Portuguese Mandhar, to command. Manéh, self, one's own self. Often your, his, her. Manéh na, mij ownself, your own


text:
Author:Edmund Dulac

Works
Text and illustration
 * Sindbad the sailor and other stories from the Arabian nights 1914
 * Edmund Dulac's picture-book for the French Red Cross. Dulac, ed., ill. circa 1916.
 * Edmund Dulac's fairy book; fairy tales of the allied nations. Dulac, ed., ill. 1916.

Illustrator
 * The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
 * Stories from the Arabian Nights (1907)
 * Stories from the Arabian Nights; retold by Laurence Housman with drawings by Edmund Dulac. [fifty colour plates] London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1907.
 * Stories from the Arabian nights [eighteen colour plates, B&W illustr.; text variant] New York: George H. Doran. [no date]

 * The queen bee and other nature stories translation of Carl Ewald. 1908. [2 pl. after drawings by Dulac]
 * The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French retold by Arthur Quiller-Couch illustrated by Edmund Dulac. New York: Hodder & Stoughton. 1910.
 * Stories from Hans Andersen with illustrations by Edmund Dulac New York: Hodder and Stoughton. c. 1910
 * The Mahogany Tree (1910), by William Makepeace Thackeray
 * Princess Badoura, a tale from the Arabian nights Laurence Housman. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1913
 * The bells and other poems Edgar Poe
 * Fairies I have met Mrs. Rodolph Stawell London: Hodder and Stoughton.
 * Shakespeare's comedy of The tempest c. 1914
 * cover design: Catalogue of an exhibition of water-colour drawings and other original works by Edmund Dulac with an introduction by Martin Birnbaum. 1916.
 * Tanglewood Tales (c. 1918), by Nathaniel Hawthorne

title: Author:Edmund Dulac


text:
Page:A dictionary of the Sunda language of Java.djvu/547

526 gives Bājana and Bhājana for a vessel, a vessel in general, as a pot, a cup, a plate, which in Malay has been modified into Bajan, and also sometimes into Wajan, a pan, a vessel; see Marsden, page 30. So also Wacha becomes Bacha in Malay, and Waru, becomes Baru.

Wajang, to copulate as animals, not as human beings.

Wajib, Arabic, necessary, proper, incumbent upon, obligatory. See  and , which have a Similarity of meaning and all three are probably Arabic.

Wak, the idiomatic expression of splitting, especially anything that splits with a noise, as a bambu. Wak bai awina beŭlah, bang! the bambu split up. Wāk, C. 634, speech, saying, a word. Wākija, C. 634, a sentence, a word, a speech, dictum. If this is a correct explanation, we have here a Sanscrit monosyllable adopted for an idiomatic expression, which is very unusual, as this class of words appears generally to be purely Polynesian.

Waka, the act of doing something, a state of exertion. A word difficult to translate by any one appropriate term. Tiba waka bogah dua siki, if only you could contrive to have two pieces. Ulah waka, do not do it yet; hold on a bit; have patience. Ulah waka di bere, don't give it to him just yet.

Wakap, empty, in no man's use. Imah wakap, an unoccupied house.

Wakcha, used only in the expression wakcha waléh, speaking out the plain truth, speaking without prevarication. This expression is used by a man when he throws himself upon the mercy or consideration of his hearer, — when he unbosoms his difficulties. Wakcha is probably a corruption of Wākya, C. 634, a sentence, a word, a speech, dictum; a rule or aphorism, and would thus mean: an undisguised word or sentence.

Wakil, Arabic, an agent, a representative, an attorney, a proxy, a deputy. An envoy. An ambassador.

Wakilan, to depute, to send or put another in our place.

Wakil mutĕlak, an agent with full powers. A plenipotentiary.

Waktu, Arabic Wakt, time, season, period, appointed time; Waktu kami datang, at the period when we came. Sambayang waktu, to pray at the appointed time, as Mahomedans do, on five separate occasions every day.

Wak-wak, to chatter, to keep talking. Wāk, C. 634, speech, a saying, a word. Our wak-wak seems to be wāk, duplicated to imply frequency or continuation. To aya anggĕus wak-wak na, there is no end of his chattering.

Walah, Arabic, by God. An exclamation of dissent or disapprobation. Walah jauh, by God it is far away. Walah saha nu daik, by God who will be willing?

Walajar, to plough the sawahs for the first time in the season. See.

Walakaya, to work, to do something for a livelyhood. To use one's endeavours.

Walang, a grass-hopper, a locust. Called in Malay Balang.

Walang, a scitameneous plant, Hedychium Gracile.

Walar-walar, and Walaran, traces on the ground. Marks of some person or animal having passed.


text:
Page:A dictionary of the Sunda language of Java.djvu/342

Rh Nyénang, sharp sighted; having a quick clear eye.

Nyéot, rapid in stream; said of water which runs freely down a slokan; said of water running down an inclined plain.

Nyépak, to kick as a horse, to strike out with the leg.

Nyĕpét, always having an arm or weapon about the person. Kris njĕpét bai tilok katinggalan, his kris is always stuck about him, he never leaves it behind. ( Jav. Tjapit, Nyapit. Batav. Nyiĕpit, to comprime, to stick fast to).

Nyĕrat, scribbling. Nyĕrat bai tulis surat, scribbling, he wrote a letter. (Jav. sĕrrat, to write).

Nyéré, the mid rib of a cocoa nutleaf. The mid-rib on each side of which the leaflets of a palm frond grow. When the leafy part is stripped off, these ribs are tied together, and they then make very good brooms and are called sapu nyéré, nyéré brushes, and are in use in every house.

Nyéré, a count kept of cotton thread in weaving. Five threads tied together.

Nyĕré, scattered about, loose. Superfluous. Not being made use of. Owoh bakakas nyĕrė di dinyo, are there no spare tools there; or — are there no tools there which are not being used.

Nyĕréké, to tiller out as corn, or other plants which grow from a bunch root, as Séréh. To set out side shoots from the roots as paddy. See Nyorėkė.

Nyĕrélék, to trickle as water; in a small stream.

Nyĕrĕp, to sink into the ground, as water running over gravelly or sandy soil; to be absorbed ; to disappear mysteriously, to be kept profoundly secret. Chai na to ngochor ka hilir nyĕrĕp bai, the water does not flow down along its course, but sinks into the ground. Kĕbo bĕunang maling di bawa ka Meester nyĕrĕp bai, when stolen buffaloes are taken to Meester Cornells (near Batavia) they disappear mysteriously (as if they sank into the ground). (Cf. Jav. Surup, Sĕrap, to get into, to go under).

Nyĕrét, to smoke opium.

Nyĕri, in pain, painful, sore, aching, ill of. Nyĕri bĕulĕung, stomach ache; Nyĕri hulu, head ache. Di gĕbugan nyĕri nakĕr, when thrashed he was very sore, or felt much pain

Nyésang, enraged, in a passion, furious. Said also when straining every effort to do something.

Nyĕsĕp, to smoke — said of the act of a great man. (Gf Asĕup, Mai. asĕp, smoke).

Nyété, to copulate.

Nyĕuksĕukan, to jeer at, to ridicule. To say something by which another person is made vexed, but not with ourselves who speak. To irritate, to cause inward vexation.

Nyĕungĕut, to put fire to, to set alight. Nyĕungĕut bĕdil, to fire a gun.

Nyĕupah, to partake of a chew of sĕurĕuh; to chew sĕurĕuh, to chew betle.

Nyĕurĕud, to sting as a wasp.

Nyéwot, in a passion, furious, in a violent anger.


text:
Page:The Seven Seas (Kipling, 1896).djvu/96

74 And jarred at every roll

The gear that was my soul

Answers the anguish of my beams' complaining.

For life that crammed me full,

Gangs of the prying gull

That shriek and scrabble on the riven hatches!

For roar that dumbed the gale,

My hawse-pipes guttering wail,

Sobbing my heart out through the uncounted watches!

Blind in the hot blue ring

Through all my points I swing—

Swing and return to shift the sun anew.

Blind in my well-known sky

I hear the stars go by,

Mocking the prow that cannot hold one true!

White on my wasted path

Wave after wave in wrath

Frets 'gainst his fellow, warring where to send me.

Flung forward, heaved aside,

Witless and dazed I bide

The mercy of the comber that shall end me.


text:
Page:The White Peacock, Lawrence, 1911.djvu/299

an afternoon three or four days after the recovery of Sam, matters became complicated. George, as usual, discovered that he had been dawdling in the portals of his desires, when the doors came to with a bang. Then he hastened to knock.

“Tell her,” he said, “I will come up to-morrow after milking—tell her I’m coming to see her.”

On the evening of that morrow, the first person to put in an appearance was a garrulous spinster who had called ostensibly to inquire into the absence of the family from church: “I said to Elizabeth, ‘Now what a thing if anything happens to them just now, and the wedding is put off.’ I felt I must come and make myself sure—that nothing had happened. We all feel so interested in Lettie just now. I’m sure everybody is talking of her, she seems in the air.—I really think we shall have thunder: I hope we shan’t.—Yes, we are all so glad that Mr. Tempest is content with a wife from at home—the others, his father and Mr. Robert and the rest—they were none of them to be suited at home, though to be sure the wives they brought were nothing—indeed they were not—as many a one said—Mrs. Robert was a paltry choice—neither in looks or manner had she anything to boast of—if her family was older than mine.


text:
Page:The Seven Seas (Kipling, 1896).djvu/97

Rh North where the bergs careen,

The spray of seas unseen

Smokes round my head and freezes in the falling;

South where the corals breed,

The footless, floating weed

Folds me and fouls me, strake on strake upcrawling.

I that was clean to run

My race against the sun—

Strength on the deep, am bawd to all disaster—

Whipped forth by night to meet

My sister's careless feet,

And with a kiss betray her to my master!

Man made me, and my will

Is to my maker still—

To him and his, our peoples at their pier:

Lifting in hope to spy

Trailed smoke along the sky,

Falling afraid lest any keel come near!


text:
Page:A dictionary of the Sunda language of Java.djvu/373

352 Paparon, to divide, to each take a share. From Paro, which see. Paparon lĕutak, to divide the mud, an expression used in sawah making, where one man owns the sawah, but having no buffaloes to plough it, gives the sawah to plough to some one who has buffaloes. When the ground has been all ploughed and rendered fit for planting, the parties divide the ground; the owner of the sawah plants his own share, and the man with the buffaloes retains the other half in payment for ploughing, and then further takes care of his own share alone.

Papas, to dubb off wood with an adze. To cut and square wood with a baliyung.

Papasah, separated, divided; what was lately united now put asunder. Separating on a journey, each going a different way.

Papasan, to square wood, to dubb off wood with an axe or adze.

Papasan, name of a running plant, which is often boiled as a greens and given to a woman after her confinement.

Papatah, orders, instructions, directions, precepts. Lain papatah, that's not the way you were taught; that will never do. Papatahna hadé, his precepts were good.

Papatahan, to instruct, to give precepts, to teach, to show how to act. To warn. Kudu di papatahan éta jélĕma, you must show that person what to do.

Papatong, a neuropterous insect called a Horse stinger, or a Dragon fly; Libellula. A common variety is Ashna Viatica.

Papatungan, see, having a share with, associated, connected in business. Trading together.

Papayon, a roof or covering. A temporary covering. Anything set up by way of shelter.

Papégon, the Chinese plough drawn by a single buffaloe.

Papĕlakan, whatever is planted; plantations.

Papisah, separated, put apart. See Pisah and Misah.

Papolah, to cook victuals, to make cooking preparations.

Papotongan, anything which has been separated from something else. A piece broken off. A piece cut off. A man's wife whom he has repudiated or divorced.

Paprangan, warefare, fighting, battle. Wartime.

Para, of the order of, of the rank or number of. Bangsana para Raden, his race (or descent) is of the order of Radens.— Para puachi, of the rank (or number) of Puachi. Para putri, princesses collectively. Vide also Parahiang below. Para becomes Poro in Javanese and is usually translated by: all, every.

Parab, food, sustenance. Naun parabna, what does it feed on?, or what is its food? Parab kotok, food for fowls. Parab kuda, food for horses.

Parabah, goods, chattels, property. In a collective sense: gear, tackle. A compound of Para, of the number of, and Abah, effects. Parabah dapur, kitchen traps, cooking pots, etc. etc. Parabah tinun, weaving gear; all the implements necessary for weaving.

Paraban, to feed, to give food to, to provide with food. Jélĕma na kudu di paraban, the men must be fed.


text:
Page:The White Peacock, Lawrence, 1911.djvu/300

292 Family wasn’t much to make up for what she lacked in other things, that I could easily have supplied her with; and, oh, dear, what an object she is now, with her wisp of hair and her spectacles! She for one hasn’t kept much of her youth. But when is the exact date, dear ?—Some say this and some that, but as I always say, I never trust a ‘they say.’ It is so nice that you have that cousin a canon to come down for the service, Mrs. Beardsall, and Sir Walter Houghton for the groom’s man! What?—You don’t think so—oh, but I know, dear, I know; you do like to treasure up these secrets, don’t you; you are greedy for all the good things just now.”

She shook her head at Lettie, and the jet ornaments on her bonnet twittered like a thousand wagging little tongues. Then she sighed, and was about to recommence her song, when she happened to turn her head and to espy a telegraph boy coming up the path.

“Oh, I hope nothing is wrong, dear—I hope nothing is wrong! I always feel so terrified of a telegram. You’d better not open it yourself, dear—don’t now—let your brother go.”

Lettie, who had turned pale, hurried to the door. The sky was very dark—there was a mutter of thunder.

“It’s all right,” said Lettie, trembling, “it’s only to say he’s coming to-night.”

“I’m very thankful, very thankful,” cried the spinster. “It might have been so much worse. I’m sure I never open a telegram without feeling as if I was opening a death-blow. I’m so glad, dear; it must have upset you. What news to take back to


text:
Page:The White Peacock, Lawrence, 1911.djvu/301

Rh the village, supposing something had happened!” she sighed again, and the jet drops twinkled ominously in the thunder light, as if declaring they would make something of it yet.

It was six o’clock. The air relaxed a little, and the thunder was silent. George would be coming about seven; and the spinster showed no signs of departure; and Leslie might arrive at any moment. Lettie fretted and fidgeted, and the old woman gabbled on. I looked out of the window at the water and the sky.

The day had been uncertain. In the morning it was warm, and the sunshine had played and raced among the cloud-shadows on the hills. Later, great cloud masses had stalked up from the northwest and crowded thick across the sky; in this little night, sleet and wind, and rain whirled furiously. Then the sky had laughed at us again. In the sunshine came the spinster. But as she talked, over the hill-top rose the wide forehead of the cloud, rearing slowly, ominously higher. A first messenger of storm passed darkly over the sky, leaving the way clear again.

“I will go round to Highclose,” said Lettie. “I am sure it will be stormy again. Are you coming down the road. Miss Slaighter, or do you mind if I leave you?”

“I will go, dear, if you think there is going to be another storm—I dread it so. Perhaps I had better wait——”

“Oh, it will not come over for an hour, I am sure. We read the weather well out here, don’t we, Cyril? You’ll come with me, won’t you?”