^ CELEBES : A PROBLEM IN DISTRIBUTION 



Probably at least nine out of every ten of the readers of 

 the present article would pronounce the name of the island 

 Celebes with the second syllable short ; and if it were an 

 English name, they would be right in so doing. But the 

 Malays have a habit of accenting the middle syllable of 

 three-syllabled words, and we thus have Sardwak, Basflan, 

 Celebes, etc. In this respect Malay names are the exact 

 opposite of South American, in which the accent falls on 

 the third syllable, as in Panamd, Bogotd, and Ecuador. 

 Doubtless it is a small matter, but it is well to be correct 

 even in the pronunciation of names. 



Having put matters right in this respect, the next point 

 is to inform my readers why Celebes has been selected 

 as the subject of an article at all ; and why Borneo, 

 Sumatra, or Java would not have done just as well. To 

 render this point clear I must refer briefly to the geo- 

 graphical position of Celebes and the neighbouring islands. 

 Borneo, Sumatra, and Java are the three largest of the 

 Malayan islands lying nearest to the Malay Peninsula ; 

 and although they possess many peculiar animals — notably 

 the orang, which is confined to Borneo and Sumatra — yet 

 their fauna as a whole is very similar to that of the Malay 

 mainland, and thus intimately connected with that of India, 

 Accordingly, naturalists are pretty well agreed in including 

 these islands in what is called the Oriental region of 



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