on every page. Imagine a nation springing from an ignorant couple on a
sea-girt isle, in a few generations they would have evolved their
Sleeping Beauty and their Prince Charming, their enchanted castles, and
their Djinns and fairies. These are as indigenous to the human heart as
the cradle-song or the battle-cry. We do not find ourselves siding with
those who would trace everything to a first exemplar. Children have
played, and men have loved, and poets have sung from the beginning, and
we need not run to Asia for the source of everything. Universal human
nature has a certain spontaneity.

The translator has tried to reproduce the faithfulness and, in some
measure, to indicate the graceful phrases of the original poem. The
author of Bidasari is unknown, and the date of the poem is a matter of
the utmost uncertainty. Some have attributed to it a Javanese origin,
but upon very slight evidence. The best authorities place its scene in
the country of Palembang, and its time after the arrival of the
Europeans in the Indian archipelago, but suggest that the legend must
be much older than the poem.

The "Makota Radja-Radja" is one of the most remarkable books of
oriental literature. According to M. Aristide Marre, who translated it
into French, its date is 1603. Its author was Bokhari, and he lived at
Djohore. It contains extracts from more than fifty Arab and Persian
authors. It treats of the duties of man to God, to himself and to
society, and of the obligations of sovereigns, subjects, ministers, and
officers. Examples are taken from the lives of kings in Asia. The
author has not the worst opinion of his work, saying distinctly that it
is a complete guide to happiness in this world and the next. He is
particularly copious in his warnings to copyists and translators,
cautioning them against the slightest negligence or inaccuracy, and