(4 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 
influence. He says that they are not numerous, are not met 
with in the extreme north-west, where they might be expected, 
but turn up in unexpected parts of Australia, far removed from 
casual intercourse with Malays.* 
In order to account for this Malay element, he introduces 
parties of Malays, who, either from choice or necessity, landed and 
became naturalised at various spots on the east, north, and west 
coasts of Australia. These Malays are thus supposed to have 
modified the speech of the people first immediately round them, 
and then landwards. + 
As to this, it may be pointed out that Australia is three-fourths 
the size of Europe. What would be thought of an hypothesis 
based upon the landing of occasional parties of Asiatics upon the 
northern coasts of the Mediterranean, thereby introducing an 
Asiatic strain into the people inhabiting, for instance, Northern 
Germany 
The linguistic ground upon which this “ Malayan” hypothesis 
rests consist first in identification of the interrogative pronouns, 
for instance, “ minyanggai, or minna,” of the Kabi language in 
Queensland, with the Malayan “mana,” which, as Mr. Mathew 
himself points out, is properly the adverb “where,” but which is 
used idiomatically to signify who, whom, which, and what ; second, 
on twelve words selected from vocabularies of Australian tribes. 
Of these words, three, namely, the Malay terms for moon, raw, 
and sun, are, on reference to Dr. Codrington’s work,{ found to 
be also Melanesian. A fourth word, namely, the West Australian 
‘“yoora” or “ura,” meaning “man,” he identifies with ‘“ orang,” 
but does not rely on it. As to the remaining eight words which 
are scattered over the continent, it may be that some might also 
be identified with Malayan and Melanesian words, and as in the 
case of isolated occurrences, it is always open to doubt whether 
the average collector of Australian vocabularies has correctly 
reported them. Even to the occurrence of the word “bapa” 
over wide areas in Australia meaning “father,” much weight 
cannot be attached, since a similar or identical term may be 
found in languages the world over. 
The Rey. Mr. Threlkeld, than whom no one has obtained so 
great a knowledge of an Australian language, denies that it has 
any close affinity with the Malay, either in word or construction.§ 
This opinion carries weight, not only by reason of his special 
qualifications, but because it relates to the languages of south- 
eastern New South Wales, where Mr. Mathew finds a strong 
Malay element. 
A passage in Crawford’s “Grammar of the Malay Language,” 
published in 1852, speaks on this question with authority and 
F XKKIX, DP.) Odile } XXXIX, p. 378. tx, p. 78. § LVI, p. 82. 
