Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/125



Read at a Meeting of the Society held on the 3rd June, 1878.

one has happily defined a proverb to be "the wisdom of many and the wit of one." As the embodiment, often in terse epigrammatic form, of certain shrewd bits of worldly wisdom, proverbs are generally popular with the peasantry of every nation; and to judge from the homely metaphors and illustrations to be found in many proverbs, it is from the peasantry that they have usually originated. They are the stock-in-trade of rustic sacans, who, innocent of any book-knowledge, learn their wisdom from the sea, the sky and the heavenly bodies, from the habits of animals and the qualities of trees, fruits and flowers; or who gather lessons, it may be, of patience, thrift, or courage from incidents of their daily pursuits. To enable us to fully understand the national character of an Eastern people, who have no literature worthy of the name and who are divided from us by race, language, and religion, a study of their proverbs is almost indispensable. An insight is then obtained into their modes of thought, and their motives of action, and, from the principles inculcated, it is possible to form some estimate of what vices they condemn, and what virtues they admire.

In studying the manners and customs of a people, a knowledge of their proverbs is of great assistance. The genius of the Malay language is in favour of neat, pithy sentences, and it abounds, therefore, in these crystallisations, (if the expression can be permitted,) of prinutive wisdom and humour, though in this respect it is said to be inferior to the Javanese. Some open up perfect pictures of certain phases of rural life, and indeed are scarcely intelligible except to those whose knowledge of the country and mode of life of the people enables them to appreciate the local colouring. As a proof of their popularity, I may instance the frequent quotation of proverbs in the Malay newspapers which were started in the Colony of last year, and of which no less than three in the native character are now published weekly in Singapore. One can seldom take up the