J 00 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 208 



ta/pe{' to love') has for its noun iopeua (' love '). 

 As Dr. Codrington remarks, "the presence of ab- 

 stract vpords like these, among people of whom it 

 is said 'that they are unable to conceive an ab- 

 stract idea,' is worthy of notice." 



A no less important result brought out by this 

 work is the clear proof it presents that all these 

 languages are nearly allied, and that they all be- 

 long to the Malayo-Polynesian family. Of this 

 fact, no one who examines the excellent compara- 

 tive grammar and the extensive vocabularies given 

 in this volume can entertain a doubt. The ques- 

 tion at once arises, How shall we explain this sin- 

 gular connection of speech between tribes so widely 

 different in physical traits? 



Three explanations have been offered. The first 

 supposes that all these islands were originally oc- 

 cupied by one race, — a yellow or light-brown 

 people, w^ith straight hair, — and that the differ- 

 ences have been caused, in the course of ages, by 

 the slow effects of climate and other natural in- 

 fluences. In this view, Oceanica would be a 

 microcosm, repeating within its limits the ethno- 

 logical phases which the world at large has dis- 

 played on a wider scale. A second theory is that 

 which is favored by Dr. Codrington, and main- 

 tained by him with much force of argument and 

 many illustrative facts. He supposes that the whole 

 archipelago was at first occupied by a dark- 

 skinned and woolly-haired people, originally is- 

 suing from Asia, and speaking the primitive 

 language from which all these Malayo-Polynesian 

 dialects are derived. At a later day, a light- 

 complexioned race, allied to the Siamese and other 

 nations of south-eastern Asia, entered the islands 

 by slow and gradual migration, took wives from 

 among the Melanesians, adopted their language, 

 and finally, by their inherent and superior vigor, 

 displaced them entirely in many of the islands, 

 and partially in others. This ingenious theory 

 would explain why only one family of languages 

 exists throughout the Melanesian region, if such 

 were the case. It collapses, however, in the 

 presence of some important facts which the 

 learned author has not sufficiently considered. 

 One of these facts is the ascertained existence in 

 New Guinea of several languages radically dis- 

 tinct from those of the Malayan stock. Dr. Cod- 

 rington himself remarks that thi-ee New Guinea 

 vocabularies, furnished to him by Mr. McFarlane 

 of the London mission society, contained no words 

 that he knew ; that is, no words of Malaisian 

 origin. These were from south-eastern New 

 Guinea, opposite the Australian coast. In the 

 north-western part of the island, the German 

 missionaries have studied the language of Mafor, 

 near the Bay of Dorey, and have translated por- 



tions of the scriptures into it. A careful analysis 

 of this language is given by Prof. F. Miiller in his 

 comprehensive work, ' Elements of linguistic 

 science ' (Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft). Many 

 words in it, as he points out, are derived from the 

 Malay ; but these are clearly modern additions, 

 several of them being actually of Arabic origin. 

 The grammar and. the mass of the vocabulary are 

 peculiar. Professor Mtiller's conclusion is, that 

 the Malay-speaking Melanesians are a mixed race, 

 derived from a mingling of yellow Malaisians 

 with an aboriginal black race. This theory, in a 

 certain way, accords with that of Dr. Codrington ; 

 but it differs from it in supposing that the Ma- 

 layo-Polynesian language belonged originally, not 

 to the black, but to the yellow race. 



For this conclusion there is evidence which 

 seems, on philological grounds, to be decisive. 

 The vocabularies show that the Malaisian words 

 which appear in the Melanesian dialects are usu- 

 ally corrupted, distorted, and abridged, having 

 undergone the same fate which the Latin words 

 experienced in the pronunciation of the Celts and 

 Iberians of Gaul, when these barbarians adopted the 

 speech of their Roman conquerors. Thus, the Malai- 

 sian api or afi (' fire ') becomes in various Melane- 

 sian dialects av, ev, eu, iei ; iJca (' fish ') dwindles to 

 ig, eg, ie ; bua or fua (' fruit ') is transformed into 

 vua, hue, we, wi, oi ; telinga {' the ear ') assumes 

 the various forms of teliga, tikga, dole, koroi, kuli, 

 taia. Similar contractions and corruptions per- 

 vade the entire vocabulary. It is clearly as im- 

 possible to hold that the fuller Malaisian words 

 are derived from these briefer forms as it would 

 be to suppose that the Latin factum, pater, canis, 

 and oculus had their originals in the French fait, 

 pere, chien, and ceil. 



There can be little doubt that the view of Pro- 

 fessor Miiller is the correct one, and that the 

 Melanesians of whom Dr. Codrington treats are a 

 people of mixed origin, deriving their language 

 mainly from the Malayan race, and their physical 

 traits, in varying proportions, partly from that 

 race, and partly from a negroid race, which is 

 still found, nearly if not quite unmixed, in many 

 parts of New Guinea. It is but just to say that 

 the author puts forth his own theory merely as a 

 suggestion, and does not allow it to influence in 

 any manner his treatment of his subject. Noth- 

 ing could be more satisfactory than the general 

 method of his work, its lucid style, its precision 

 and completeness. Several good maps afford use- 

 ful aid to the student. The volume must be 

 ranked among the best of the many valuable ac- 

 quisitions which ethnological science owes to mis- 

 sionary zeal and scholarship. 



H. HAI.E. 



