Vaux.—On the Probable Origin of the Maori Races. 58 
scarcely more than this—that in certain Malay, or so-called Malay 
languages, some grammatical forms, and also a certain number of indivi- 
dual words are found, both of which are also met with in Polynesian, 
though, in most instances, under considerable modifications of form. 
Clearly if we cannot say that languages so near akin the one to the other 
as Greek and Sanskrit can be placed under the category of derived languages, 
still less can we assert this in the case of Polynesian as compared with 
Malay. I am rather inclined to think that all that can at present be 
reasonably affirmed on the subject is, that there must have been a time 
when these two populations (the Malay and the Polynesian) were living 
near together, probably in intimate connection, and, further, that a long 
interval of time has elapsed since this occurred, during which there has 
been—almost certainly—an intervention of other races wholly diverse from 
both. Taking into consideration all the available facts, I think we are 
justified in believing that Malay and Polynesian, alike, ultimately came 
from some part of Central Asia, though, even here, I must admit that we 
have hardly anything that can be called evidence, and that it is only guess 
work as to the line or lines they may have taken from Mongolia to the 
Western Pacific. As an hypothesis I would suggest it is likely that, as we 
know was the case with the great waves of emigration, which at a period 
probably more recent, proceeded westwards across Asia into Europe, there 
were several routes eastward also, distinct the one from the other, but all, 
in the end, reaching the ocean. The originally one people, thus divided, 
might, perhaps, never again have met till long after they had occupied the 
island abodes where we now find them. Such a separation would be amply 
sufficient—on the analogy of what we know has happened in the progress 
of the Aryan (or Indo-European) races—for all the modifications of speech 
now noticeable in the dialects to which I have referred. There is nothing 
unreasonable in the supposition that what we can trace in the instance of 
the wanderings westward of the races of Central Asia should be equally 
true of other wanderings, in this instance, to the East and the Pacific, even 
though we cannot trace back these migrations with the same clearness that 
we can those to the West. The same reasons that led to migrations in the 
one would avail to produce the other ; the most probable of these being 
over-population, and scant provision of food and of other necessaries of life. 
On this hypothesis it seems to me probable that there might have been two 
principal waves of emigration Eastwards, one finding its course along the 
great river highway of the mighty Yang tze Kiang, and thus reaching the 
ocean in the latitude of 82° N., with, possibly, a smaller branch by the 
southern stream of the Si Kiang, or river of Canton, reaching in 23° N. 
