Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/34

 20 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE parallel to this strange kind of measure, and, there- fore, I shall offer a brief account of it. A stanza consists of a limited and given number of lines, or rather pauses, each of which must invariably and unalterably consist of a given number of syllables, and terminate in the same rhyme, which rhyme must be a broad or slender vowel, it being indif- ferent what its sound be, provided the arrangement into these two classes be attended to. To give an example, the stanza called Durmo consists of seven pauses, the first ending in the broad vowels o or w, and consisting of twelve syllables ; the second in e or /, and consisting of seven syllables ; the third in or w, consisting of six 5 the fourth also in or Uy and having seven syllables ; the fifth in e or iy consisting of eight syllables ; the sixth in or u, consisting of five syllables ; and the seventh of slender vowels, consisting of eight syllables. It is not easy to understand from what princi- ple this fantastical measure could have had its ori- gin, for it is not to be supposed that the rhyme which is not repeated until at the interval of seven lines or pauses, as in the instance quoted, and of others at an interval of nine or even ten, should still hang upon the ear and be remembered. A Javanese poem of any length does not uni- formly consist of the same measure throughout, for the different measures are supposed to be most ap- propriate to particular subjects 5 hencQ, they are