﻿J. T. Thomson-. — The Whence of the Maori. 31 



To compare for ourselves the correctness of this description, we have not far to 

 go, for we have the prisonei's of the Noi'th Ishind in Dunedin, and the Maoris 

 of the Lower Harbour to contemplate, and we have also Chinese now in our 

 streets. Though the countenances of the Maoris will be found to diffei' widely 

 yet the general cast will be admitted to approach none of the three great 

 distinctive divisions of mankind. They are clearly a cross, whose affinities are 

 Dravirian or South Indian of the oldest class. On this subject I may be 

 allowed to speak as one who has had experience, having resided in countries 

 where both races were to be daily seen ; and while I would ascribe the affinities 

 of the Maori physiognomy to be nearest to the Dravirian, yet I would also 

 support an hypothesis that the race was also affiicted by an archaic connection 

 with som.e of the first off-shoots of the Thibetan and ultra-Gangetic races, such 

 as are now represented by the Bajowor Oranglaut, to whose physiognomy there 

 is a striking approximation in many individual Maoris whose countenances 

 have been scanned by me. This tribe are sea nomads, and frequent all waters 

 and islands of the Indian Archipelago. The above opinions would indicate a 

 more remote and westerly origin to the Maori than has yet, as far as I am 

 aware, been enunciated by prior writers ; but, before dealing with this 

 hypothesis, it will be necessary to examine into the grounds of the generally 

 received opinion of their Malay origin. 



The idea of the Malay origin seems to have been accepted by various 

 writers, owing to partial giossarial resemblance and great similarity of phonetic 

 system and idiom ; but the Malay is only one dialect amongst 300 or more 

 spoken over the wide area of the Indian Archipelago, many of which have 

 nearer .resemblances to the Maori than the Malay has. Before, therefore, we 

 can proceed, the hitherto accepted hypothesis of the Malay origin of the Maori 

 requires refutation. 



The original seat of the Malays is ascribed to Malayala, on the Malabar 

 Coast, as the Javanese to the Yavanas, of Central Asia. This may be fanciful 

 or true ; I would rather adhere to the more practical theory, that the name of 

 Malay was derived from the river Malayu, the highway to their Menangkabau 

 territory in Sumatra, this being the common mode of naming tribes in these 

 regions at the present day — such as Orang Johore, the people of the river 

 Johore ; Orang Ache, the men of the river Aclieen, etc. So I would also derive 

 the generic term for the inhabitants of Java, from the fact of the island being 

 called by the natives Tannah Jawa — literally, the land of rice fields — and as 

 such it is pre-eminently the granary of the Archipelago, hence by surrounding 

 tribes, the inhabitants are called Oi'ang Jawa, which we translate into the 

 term Javanese. 



According to the "Sijara Malayu" or "Malay Annals" (a copy of which is 

 on the table) the Malay Rajas descended fi'om no less a personage than Alexander 



