Online materials Christian and Indonesian Muslim calendars An outline sketch of the calendars for historians of Indonesia The calendars covered are:       Chistian (Julian, Gregorian)       Muslim (rukyah, hisabi)       Muslim (Javanese) Converting dates with AHAD AHAD, a macro for converting Muslim and Christian dates. This macro runs in Microsoft Word and in OpenOffice Writer.   It will convert a Muslim date to a Christian date and vice versa.  Once the macro is installed, it very easy to use.   It is only necessary to highlight the date you wish to convert, activate the macro, and the result will be pasted into your document.   The download packages include instructions for installing the macro.                 The Story of a Javanese Lieutenant Tjrita-an dari satoe Letenant Djawa: the Malay text The story was published as a serial in the Surabaya Malay newspaper Bintang Timor from May to July 1865. It is a Malay adaptation of a Dutch sketch by W.A. van Rees, “Een inlandsch Luitenant”, pp.81-107 of W.A. van Rees, Toontje Poland, voorafgegaan door eenige Indische typen, Arnhem: D.A. Thieme, 1867. Its theme is the irrationality and inhumanity of colour-based discrimination in the Netherlands Indies. I have given an English translation of the Malay version in my article, “Room to manoeuvre in the nineteenth-century Indies Malay press: the story of a Javanese Lieutenant“, Indonesia and the Malay World 102 (July 2007): 155–182. A Malay Merchant of Venice Syair Saudagar Bodoh: an English translation The Stupid Merchant is an example of popular Malay literature in the nineteenth century. It is written in the simple ballad style known as syair, in rhymed quatrains. Ballads in this style were immensely popular in the days when stories were meant to be read aloud. It is supposed that there was a craze for this kind of literature in the nineteenth century, but there are good reasons to believe that this popular genre has a much longer pedigree. It is interesting that the more popular ballads of the nineteenth century have strong women as their protagonists. The Stupid Merchant shares this trait. This is in very marked contrast to the feudal and courtly cast of most Malay literature, in which the obligatory beautiful princess is no more than the swooning plaything of powerful and handsome men. The more popular ballads seem to envisage a rather different kind of society: not so court-centred, and not so patriarchal. First steps in classical Malay syntax Notes prepared for a class at the Australian National University