32 THE POLYNESIAN WANDERINGS. 



Dr. Macdonald has presented a captivating theory of an Oceanic 

 family wandering from a Semitic home, bold sailors over unknown 

 seas and far from the tents of Kedar. This theory must rest on 

 the data which he presents to us. If it be valid, the data must 

 yield the same result to independent examination. 



This Oceanic speech family comprises four households. The 

 Polynesian is known intimately, the Malayan has been even more 

 extensively studied, the Semitic has engaged the attention of the 

 most able scholarship for centuries. The Melanesian is now just 

 being admitted to the family circle; it has been scarcely known 

 until the publication of this Efate work. 



But the position of this new household is significant geographi- 

 cally, for it bridges the gap between Indonesia and the nearest point 

 of Polynesian culture. We are therefore warranted in expecting 

 Melanesia, on this theory, to establish its articulation with the 

 Malayan speech group in one direction, with the Polynesian tongues 

 in the other, and internally we look to find some thread of inter- 

 relation between Efate and such other languages of Melanesia as 

 are known at all. In the order of antecedent probability, a mathe- 

 matical deduction as generally applicable as an algebraic equation, 

 these associations should be arranged in the following order : 



Melanesian interrelations ; the most frequent. 



Indonesian and Polynesian articulations; either equal in 



frequency or exhibiting a slight preponderance toward 



the Indonesian. 



These two terms are immediately limiting. Established cases in 

 which the two terms are combined will have a great weight. Similar 

 weight will attach to examples which are found common to Mel- 

 anesia, Indonesia, and the Semitic. The examples which can be 

 established in an indisputable chain from Polynesia through each 

 link back to the Semitic will be compelling evidence. 



These are the matters which we are to look for in the exploration 

 of the material, in independent study of the Efate dictionary. 



In an earlier chapter I mentioned the number of the dictionary 

 entries, 3,657, and I gave that as the result of a count seriatim. 

 The operations of arithmetic did not cease with the attainment of 

 that figure. I made a table of all the words for which Dr. Macdonald 

 claimed relationship with other households of his Oceanic family. 

 This table I now present, for it contains matter of note. In it I 

 have cast out the purely demonstrative words. Since I have shown 

 that Dr. Macdonald is willing to base his own theory upon them to 

 a certain considerable degree, but is averse from allowing their use 

 to other inquirers, I think it preferable to put them aside lest I be 

 classed with Bopp and Max Miiller. 



