Malayan and Polynesian Languages and Races. 183 



if it were, to have repelled all knowledge derived from a su- 

 perior one. 



In order to sliew the proportion in which Malayan words 

 are found in the various languages which have received 

 them. I give a few examples. In the Madura, one of the 

 two languages of the island of that name, in 1000 words, it 

 is 581 ; in Sunda, one of the two languages of Java, it is 

 528 ; in Lampving, one of the six languages of Sumatra, it 

 is 516 ; in the Wvigi, one of the many languages of Celebes, 

 it di'ops down to 233 ; in the Tagala of the Philippines, it is 

 but 33 ; in the New Zealand, it is but 20 ; and in the Mala- 

 gas!, but 17. 



A few instances occur of the languages of tribes so situated 

 that we might fairly expect them to contain a considerable 

 portion of Malay and Javanese, but which really contain very 

 little. Tlie most remarkable example of this is the Tambora 

 of Sumbawa. This island is only the third from Java, and 

 nearly in the centre of the Archipelago, while the people 

 who speak the language are of the brown-complexioned lank- 

 haired race, like those who speak two other languages of the 

 same island, both containing a large influx of Malay and Ja- 

 vanese, yet, out of forty-eight words, the Tambora contains 

 but two words, bulu, " a hair," and makan, " to eat."* 



Another example, although not so striking a one, is af- 

 forded by the language of the Pelew or Pilu Islands, inha- 

 bited by a bi'ovvn-complexioned and lank-haired race, and not 

 more than eight degrees east of the Philippine group. In 

 658 words of it, I can discover only three which are Malayan. 

 Yet a considerable number of Malayan words are found in 

 the language of the Bashee Islands, and in that of the native 

 inhabitants of Formosa ; and a still larger in the Sandwich 

 Island dialnct of the Polynesian, ten times as far from the 

 Philippine as the Pelew group, f 



* It was in tlie country of the people of Tambora tliat took place the greatest 

 volcanic eruption on record, that of 1814 ; and the nation is said to have been 

 nearly destroyed by it. 



t Account of the Pelew Islands from the .Journals of Captain Henry Wilson, 

 by Gcorf,'e Keate, Esq. London, 1788. 



