23O ON THE TRACES OF THE 



this alphabet in their writings, do yet reject the use of 

 certain letters, either as superfluous, or as not suited to 

 the smoothness of their own sounds, and which there- 

 fore appear only in words purely Arabic* The Hin- 

 duvee words, on the contrary, being divested of their 

 proper dress, and clothed, in common with those 

 originally Malayan^ in the adopted Arabic character 

 (with certain judicious modifications) want the same 

 token of their origin, and are more assimilated with 

 the rest of the language. 



In this short list of words taken, with little pains 

 in the selection, from a Malayan dictionary, the de- 

 parture from the Hinduvee is scarcely more than may 

 arise from a different habit of spelling them in our 

 • letters, unless where it consists in a slight variation of 

 the sense, or of the part of speech. 



Sooka. Ford, pleased. Bcchara. Advice, counsel, J a g a * To watch. 



Sooka cbetba. Pleasure, joy. judicial proceeding. Peotree. Princess. 



Dooka, Sad Bccjet. Seed. Rata. Chariot. 



Bagee. To divide. Boodee- Wisdom, under- Pernama. Full moon. 



Bangsa. Race, Family. standing. Cbaree. To seek. 



B~iia. Language. Loba. Covetous. 



An inspection of the characters used by the natives 

 cf the islands, who have not adopted the Malayan or 

 Arabic mode of writing, will shew that in the arrange- 

 ment of their letters they have taken the Hindu for 

 their guide, and have even preserved the rhythmus 

 terminated by a nasal-, which so peculiarly distin- 

 guishes this from every other system. The aspirated 

 letters not being required for expressing the rounds of 

 these languages, are omitted, and each division of the 

 seiies consists therefore of three, instead of five. In 



the 



