Page:A dictionary of the Sunda language of Java.djvu/453

432 Saséngkédan, a diagonal piece of wood in carpentry. A prop set diagonally in a post to support a horizontal beam. See Sengkéd.

Sasuganan, to try your luck. Per adventure. Nothing like trying. Sat, Arabic, essence, substance; person, sect, caste. Zat, MARSDEN 140. Satak, two hundred; the number 200. Satak in ancient method of counting Chinese cash, is equal to eight Dutch doits of the present time, or as the Sunda people call that amount Sa-wang. At the present time these Chinese cash are still in use on Bali and Lombok, and Satak there now-a-days means a string of 200 Pichis, which is of the value of one guilder copper money. Singapore Journal, 1851, vol. 5, page 460. At pages 86/87 of the work „Het eiland Bali en de Balinezen, door den Hoogleeraar LAUTS—1848“ we learn that the traders on Bali speak of Atak, Bungkus, and Pĕku to designate different quantities of Chinese pichis or cash. These cash and Spanish Dollars are the only kinds of money met with on Bali. The cash are still imported from China and yield a good profit to the trader. 200 pichis are considered as having the value of one guilder silver. The Spanish dollar varies in value from 600 to 700 pichis. 200 pichis are strung together on a rope and are called Sa-atak; five such ropes, with their ends tied together, and thus containing 1000 pichis, form Sa-bungkus, or one bundle. Fifty ataks or 10,000 pichis put up in a bag make Sa-pĕku. Thus Sa-atak is equal to one guilder silver, Sa-bungkus to five guilders, and Sa-pĕku to fifty guilders silver. Considerable discrepancy thus exists between the values attributed on the present Bali, and in ancient Sunda to these designations. The ancient Sunda satak being said to amount to only eight Dutch doits, whereas the present Satak on Bali has the value of one guilder silver, and thus at least 120 Dutch doits. Perhaps the rude Sunda people in early times, before they got the Chinese pichis, counted with small stones or pebbles, which Mas also implies (see Mas in voce), as some rude Indians count with cowry shells. The Chinese metal cash, base as it is , may thus have been an innovation, in the course of the progress of trade, in which we know that the Chinese largely participated. That the people of the Archipelago formerly counted with stones may almost be inferred from One in Malay being expressed by Satu or Sa-watu, one stone, and in Sunda by Sahiji or Siji, one seed. Saténg, one half, appears to be the short for Sa-téngah. Sa-wang saténg, a wang and one half = 12 doits.

Saténg'ah, half, one half. Gĕus saténgah béak, it is half done.

Satia, is the burning of a wife on Bali, who, from a stage constructed for the purpose, throws herself into the fire where her husband's body is being burnt, after she has krissed herself. Satia is truth, faithfulness; the wife who dies in this way, is called Satia Wati, true and faithful, who has responded to all her duty towards her husband. FRIEDERICH, Bat. Trans., vol. 23, page 10. This is probably the same word which has become in Sunda Sacha, which see, and is derived from Satya, C. 699,