1^0 ON THE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE 



extricable, may not be altogetlier without its use; 

 but may, even where I have failed, serve to point out 

 the proper method of investigation. 



The Indo-Chinese nations, at a very early period, 

 seem to have generally embraced the system of 

 Budd'ha. From the want of original historical do- 

 cuments, we can only conjecture the period at which 

 this event took place, in the different regions over 

 which it has extended; but at present it is chiefly 

 confined to the continent. Ihe coasts of the Malayan 

 peninsula, and of the greater part of the eastern isles, 

 are chiefly occupied by the Moslems. The original 

 inhabitants, therefore, being for the most part con- 

 fined to the interior of these islands, are still very im- 

 perfectly known to Europeans ; so that it is often im- 

 possible to determine, whether their religious insti- 

 tutions are most connected with the tenets of Brah- 

 ma or Budd'ha, and often to reduce them to any 

 known system. From the names and epithets, how- 

 ever, of some of their deities, even as given in the 

 vulgar and incurious manner of common navigators, 

 it is often easy to discover their connexion with the 

 grand features of Hindu superstition ; but our notices 

 concerning them are generally too scanty, and our 

 narratives too erroneous, to enable us to classify them 

 with absolute certainty. Such is the difference of 

 oriental and European manners, that the simplest nar- 

 rator is apt to mingle conjecture with observation ; 

 while an absurd affectation of superior sagacity and a 

 disdain of vulgar superstitions and prejudices, often 

 prevent those who have had the opportunity of obser- 

 •yation, from detailing the most useful pieces of in- 

 formation, or induce them to reject, as anile and use- 

 less fables, the mythological narratives which would 

 enable us to determine the origin of a nation or a tribe. 



