This collection of Malay proverbs and proverbial sayings was previously assembled and published by E.S. Hose of the Malayan Civil Service in 1933, after he had retired from the post of Colonial Secretary.

He collected many of them from the Journals of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society where they had been published by W. E. Maxwell, Hugh Clifford and J.L. Humphreys, between 1878 and 1914. Others were printed in the Malay-English Dictionary by R.J. Wilkinson in 1901.

Many of these proverbs were in regular use among the Malay community at the end of the last century, and they relate to their life and surroundings. For this reason some of the words and expressions will be unfamiliar to modern town dwellers.

These proverbs may not appear in present day conversation or in the Press, but they are part of the Malay heritage and deserve to be preserved.

Few readers, whether they are scholars or students, have access to the Journals of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society or to Wilkinson's Dictionary, and with this in mind the Council of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society decided to publish this book and to give a new lease of life to that unique portion of the Malay language — the Malay Proverbs.

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