Steampunk Nusantara

Item consists of 7 sheets of good-quality woodpulp paper, folded in half and bound with a narrow strip of red silk. Each sheet of paper appears to be an individual letter, handwritten with black carbon-based ink, addressed to a “Varsha” (woman-identified, no surname or other names known) from a single unknown writer (see below). There is minor water damage to the outermost layers of paper, but the letters are in otherwise good condition.

The letters were written in the Marathi language, in a combination of Modi (primary) and Devanagari (secondary) scripts. A cursory analysis of their content by one of the linguists determined that the writer was proficient but not entirely fluent in the language, and that the writer and the recipient of the letters were engaged in a relationship that is romantic in nature. The content of the letters is composed of mainly personal news and descriptions of everyday life (extremely useful for the anthropologists).

It is speculated that the writer is restricted to a single sheet of paper for every letter, hence the crammed but painstakingly clear writing. Despite the writer’s less than perfect fluency in the language, none of the letters bear marks of corrections, perhaps indicating the writer drafted each letter elsewhere first before writing out a final version. What free spaces there are in the letters are filled with small sketches or doodles: anatomically-correct renditions of bird wings, dragonflies, various flora found in the Southeast Asian region, and what appears to be diagrams of a ship’s hull.

Unfortunately the letters are undated, though preliminary tests on the paper and ink indicate that they are approximately 70 years old (1940s). We have thus far been unable to identity the name of the writer -- four of the letters bear a word that is likely to be a name (or perhaps a salutation) at the bottom of the last page, but it is in a script unfamiliar to any of the linguists.

( Excerpt. )

Below are excerpts from an incomplete transcript and translation of an audio recording made on one of the artifacts similar to phonograph cyclinders, playable on a mechanical device discovered earlier [note to assistant D2: cross-reference this]. The cylinder (preliminary catalogue no. SAS-1-1939-42) was stored in a sturdy wooden tube of unremarkable design, with a printed label in Jawi script pasted onto the cap of the tube. The bottom half of the label has been torn off, but a date is legible on what remained intact: 12 Muharram 1358 Hijrah (transcript). No other identifying markers were found.

Sound quality is fairly low but approximately three-quarters of the recording are intelligible. The speaker on the recording is an adult male, speaking in a language confirmed to be that of the Labuk Kadazan dialect; unfortunately the speaker utilised a number of words (loan words?) unknown to linguists C.P. and R.R.M.

Excerpt 1:

Ask your cousin if [s/he] is keeping the bambangan pickles near [his/her] [unidentified]. If [s/he] has, throw the pickles away. We will send more when the winds are right.

The hinava won't be as it is here, but wash [the?] fish in hot water. We wish we can send you good fish to where you are. Lime juice, salt, chilli as you like. Remember the sugar there is bad for your [kidneys?].

Excerpt 2:

Tomorrow [rhetorical, not literal?] you sail again into [unidentified] and bring your name to the place where all will know it. Don't trouble yourself to [jump?] upriver from the bay. Your mother and your father are young and years are short. Wherever you are, however long you take, we will wait for you at home. The time between the winds only gives you enough for this [unidentified] to find your hands, send you our affection.