Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/261

 INDIAN ISLANDERS. ^IJ in the province of Cheribon, the only one ever dis- covered in Java, and which was voluntarily present- ed to me for perusal or inspection in ISL*^, when engaged in making some political and revenue ar- rangements in the country, by the respectable chief of that beautiful mountain district. The manuscript had been preserved for ages in his family, not only as an heirloom, but as a sacred relic, with the safety of which he and his followers superstitiously be- lieved that of the district was inseparable. No European had either seen it or heard of it before, and, on this occasion, the secret of its existence was divulged, in the confidence of satisfaction at the character of the arrangements which were making by the British authorities. The manu- script is written on a substantial and durable pa- per, the art of fabricating which is now unknown, and it is folded in a zig-zag manner, as practised by the Burmans and Siamese. The writing is re- gular, but an indifferent specimen of penmanship ; and, from the figures, signs of the zodiac, and other characters painted upon it, it is conjectured to be a treatise on astrology. It contains no date, but from the agreement of the writing with that of the class just now described, and the tradition of its having been brought from the comparatively recent establishment of Pajajaran, we conjecture that it was written about the middle of the fourteenth century of Salivana. Of the fourth and last class of inscriptions, not