OF JAVA. 21 varied as the subject is grave or lively, expresses love, hatred, peace, war, or negociation. The trammels of this description of verse give rise to the necessity of ample prosodial licences. Sometimes the first, or even the two first syllables of a word are omitted, and at other times as many are added to eke out a line, and obtain a rhyme producing a very ludicrous effect, as in several of the worst of our own old ballads. In short, sense is as often sacrificed to sound in the poetry of the Javanese, as in that of any people on earth. An account of Javanese literature is curious, and even important, as it tends to throw light on the history of society in general, and more parti- cularly on that considerable portion of the species which is contained in Java itself, and the other countries of the Indian Archipelago ; but if the reader expects to find in the literature of Java any merit worthy the attention of the European scho- lar, he will be utterly disappointed. He will dis- cover in it neither sublimity, pathos, tenderness, nor humour, but, on the contrary, bombast, pueri- lity, or utter inanity, in literature, the very stam- mering of infancy without its interest or amuse- ment. Javanese literature may be divided into lyrical compositions, or songs ; romances founded on Hin- du legends ; romances founded on native story ; histories of modern transactions 5 legal and ethical
