MALAYO-POLYNESIAN AFFINITIES. 103 



of the Malagasy, and form a chain of evidence which is 

 exceedingly strong, and which is confirmed by every recent 

 accession to our information about the various tribes inhabit- 

 ing Madagascar, 



The Malay relationships of the Malagasy have, however, 

 been disputed by Mr. Crawfurd, who, in A Dissertation on 

 the Affinities of the Malayan Languages, maintained that 

 the connection between them was very slight indeed, and 

 endeavoured to account for the presence of the undoubted 

 resemblances between them by the arrival of a few piratical 

 proas driven b}'' a hurricane from the Malay Archipelago, and 

 bringing with them a few of the most necessary articles of food. 

 The words for these, together with others, of an admittedly 

 very important character, he thinks maintained their ground, 

 while the immiOTants themselves were absorbed in the mass 

 of the population. But Mr. Crawfurd has largely under- 

 rated the connection between the two languages, as has been 

 conclusively shown by the Eev. W. E. Cousins ; and those 

 who know the Malagasy will be disposed to place little 

 'reliance upon his opinion on this point where he says 

 that they " do not bear any resemblance to " the Malays, 

 and that " they are in fact negroes, but negroes of a particular 

 description." 



Another writer, Mr. C. Staniland Wake, in a paper read 

 before the Anthropological Society (Dec. 14, 1869) on "The 

 Eace Elements of the Madecasses," has endeavoured to show 

 that there is a much closer connection between the peoples 

 of Madagascar and those of South and East Africa than had 

 hitherto been supposed. This opinion he tries to prove by 

 pointing out a number of resemblances between them in 

 physical structure, hair, craniology, pastoral habits, political 

 arrangements, and in religious notions and superstitions. No 

 doubt some of these are entitled to be considered as of 

 weight ; and the quotations he gives of descriptions of a Hova 

 and a Betsimis^raka skull are very important confirmations of 

 his opinion, if they are indeed fair specimens of the craniologij 

 of these tribes respectively. But as it is very difficult to obtain 

 a Hova cranium, it appears to me that it is quite possible that 

 the specimen described by Dr. Carter Blake and adduced by 



