Malayan literature; comprising romantic tales, epic poetry and royal ...

iv SPECIAL INTRODUCTION
and winsome youth. The story
is no more immoral than a
drop of dew or a lotus bloom ; and, as to interest, in the land of
the improviser and the story-teller one is obliged to be inter-
esting. For there the audience is either spellbound, or quickly
fades away and leaves the poet to realize that he must attempt
better things.
We think that these folk-stories have, indeed, a common
origin, but that it is in the human heart. We do not look for
a Sigurd or Siegfried on every page. Imagine a nation springing
from an ignorant couple on a sea-girt isle, in a few
generations they would have evolved their Sleeping Beauty and
their Prince Charming, their enchanted castles, and their
Djinns and fairies. These are as indigenous to the human
heart as the cradle-song or the battle-cry. We do not find our-
selves siding with those who would trace everything to a first
exemplar. Children have played, and men have loved, and
poets have sung from the beginning, and we need not run to
Asia for the source of everything. Universal human nature
has a certain spontaneity.
The translator has tried to reproduce the faithfulness and, in
some measure, to indicate the graceful phrases of the original
poem. The author of Bidasari is unknown, and the date of
the poem is a matter of the utmost uncertainty. Some have
attributed to it a Javanese origin, but upon very slight evidence.
The best authorities place its scene in the country of Palem-
bang, and its time after the arrival of the Europeans in the
Indian archipelago, but suggest that the legend must be much
older than the poem.
The " Makota Radja-Radja " is one of the most remarkable
books of oriental literature. According to M. Aristide Marre,
who translated it into French, its date is 1603. Its author was
Bokhari, and he lived at Djohore. It contains extracts from
more than fifty Arab and Persian authors. It treats of the
duties of man to God, to himself and to society, and of the obligations
of sovereigns, subjects, ministers, and officers. Examples
are taken from the lives of kings in Asia. The author
has not the worst opinion of his work, saying distinctly that
it is a complete guide to happiness in this world and the next.
He is particularly copious in his warnings to copyists and trans-
lators, cautioning them against the slightest negligence or in-