Phœnician Characters in Sumatra

IN a short communication to the Anthropological Institute in December last (NATURE, vol. xi. p. 199), Phœnician characters were stated by me to be still in use in South Sumatra. As many of your readers may be glad to have more information on the subject, I write to say that the district above alluded to includes Rejang, Lemba, and Passammab, between the second and fifth parallels of south latitude. Several manuscripts, on bamboo, from this region are preserved in the library of the India Office ; and a Rejang alphabet is given by Marsden in his “History of Sumatra,” third edition. Some of his characters, however, appear to have been incorrectly copied. About half the Rejang letters are admitted by all the Oriental scholars to whom I have shown them to be Phoenician of the common type; others being similar to forms found in Spain and other Phoenician colonies. Most of the letters are reversed, a peculiarity which is explained by the fact that the Rejang writing, according to Marsden, is read from left to right, contrary to the practice of the Malays generally. The matter is of great interest, and, it is to be hoped, will be investigated by Phoenician scholars.






Source :http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v11/n273/abs/011228a0.html
Lost Cities of Ancient Lemuria & the Pacific By David Hatcher Childress