JAVANESE ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT.

The origin of the Oceanic dialects, and of those of India beyond the Ganges, more especially the civilized idioms of the Indian Archipelago, is referred to a language which was that of an unknown people inhabiting the island of Java. From this primitive language the modern Javanese

is supposed to be immediately derived. Javanese literature con-
sists of poems, dramas, songs, and historical and religious
writings. The accompanying facsimile is from a myth-
ological-religious tract written upon a vegetable
paper of native manufacture, and orna-
mented with grotesque drawings.