Malayan and Polynedan Lunguafjea and Baces. 181 



be a corruption of the Malay words biiah nur, or the fruit of 

 the cocoa-nut; and in a third the same object is called woo, 

 which may be a corruption of the Malay biiah, or the Javan- 

 ese moh, " fruit'' or " the fruit." 



Comparing the languages of the islands in Torres Straits 

 with those of Malicolo, Tanna, and New Caledonia, there 

 are certainly no two words in common between them. Even 

 the numerals are wholly different ; and while the Polynesian 

 negroes count as far as 10, Torres Straits islanders can pro- 

 ceed no further than 6, and even this only by combining one 

 and two. 



From the details which have now been given, it will be 

 seen that Malay and Javanese words, as I stated before, 

 have found their way into the languages of the Archipelago 

 and Pacific, or other neighbourhood, in proportion to facility 

 or difficulty of communication with the parent countries of 

 these two languages, Sumatra and Java. The facilities and 

 difficulties have consisted of proximity or distance, geogra- 

 phical and navigable ; of similarity or dissimilarity of race, of 

 similarity or dissimilarity of lingual idiom, and attraction or 

 repulsion from disparity in the condition of civilization. 



The influx of Malay and Javanese words will be found 

 large in the proportion of the facilities ; and small as they 

 diminish, until, by an accumulation of difficulties, they cease 

 altogether. 



INIalay and Javanese words have not been ti'aced to the 

 languages of the continents of Africa and America. Mada- 

 gascar seems to intercept them from the first ; and the want 

 of stepping-stones or stages between Easter Island and the 

 west coast of America, with adverse winds and currents, from 

 the last. 



Wherever they have been received, the Malays and Ja- 

 vanese will be found in a higher state of civilization than the 

 nations into whose languages theirs have been adopted. 

 Wherever, on the contrary, the nations with whom they have 

 held intercourse have been in a higher state of civilization 

 than themselves, their languages have been rejected, and 

 the languages of those nations even adopted into their own. 



