160 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
v" 
We must again guard against the error of accepting all radical terms as 
proving affinity of race; the terms most certain are those which are con- 
nected with immediate surroundings or events, such as for parts of the 
body, head, mouth, feet, &c., the principal physical objects—sun, moon, 
stars, earth, &c.; articles of food—water, rice, fruit, &c.; calls to companions 
as come, go, give, &c. If the terms be not connected with immediate 
surroundings then they become less valuable in support of proof of racial 
affinity, as for example :— 
3 In 
Serer Malay Archipelago. gnam 
Dog .. | asu, gaso, kaso, aso | tasu Angami Naga, azz Nowgong Naga, East of Bengal. 
Horse .. kuda ghoda, Kiranti, Nepal; ghora, Nepal; kodo, kudata, 
Central India ; kudre, Southern India. 
CrOW >» gaga gagah -po, Kiranti, Nepal; gugga, Central India; 
kakka, Southern India 
Buffalo .. kurbau eros wasaa Nicobar iak: kla-ou booh, Talain, 
Cocoa-nut nior nio, Malagasi i; nazi, Swahili; nyu, nui, niwi, nua, 
niu mn, me etc., Malay Esci niu, 
a and Haw 
Here the words dog, horse, crow and buffalo being similar, or nearly so, in 
Malay and several races of Asia, do not indicate aflinity, but only that such 
animals had been derived from thence. On the contrary the radical Malay 
word nior, having wide similarity from Africa to Polynesia, may be taken 
to indicate affinity of race, for as the cocoa-nut grows on the sea-shore, 
letting its fruit fall to float and be carried to all tropical regions, it may be 
supposed to have preceded the emigrant tribes; thus, as they approached 
each island or shore, they carried the fossil word and applied it to the same 
species of tree, in whichever parts of their vast regions it had drifted and 
germinated, or they may have carried, exceptionally, the fruit with them. 
Again, in the following examples :— 
= | In Malagasi. | 
amboa 
Dol eee imbua, Inhambane; imbua, Sofala ; umboa, Cap Del 
Cattle .. ombi 
gado. 
ngombe, Tette, Sena, Quellimane, Mosambique, Cap Delgado, etc. 
The dog and the crow are not indigenous words of Malagasi, but derivative 
from Africa, the designations having been imported with the animals 
themselves. 
Hence, in choosing words found in the various dictionaries for compari- 
son, I have had the above considerations in view, and have adopted only 
such as can be held as radical, indigenous, or truly fossil. By this means 
the racial affinities of the separate and far distant tribes can be indicated in 
the Barata of the tropics as in the Gypsies of Europe or the Portuguese in 
