﻿J. T. Thomson.— ^Ae Whence of the Maori. 35 



of energy, litei-ature, and science. A gain, in the case of nations on a level with, 

 or a little superior to the Malays, how little they have engrafted on their 

 language may be seen by the following examples, and this after an intercourse 

 even more ancient than any previously mentioned. The Javanese have given 

 40 words ; the Chinese, 3 ; the Japanese, 3 ; and the Tamilians or Klings, 2 ; 

 but here also no primary words have been engrafted. Thus, the Ai-abic 

 words are expressions connected with religion, law, and science ; the Sansciit 

 ■with war, literature, and mythology, with a few words expressing primary 

 wants ; the Persian with commerce and medicine ; the Portuguese and Javanese 

 with titles, customs, and ai^ticles foreign to the social wants of the Malays. 

 Such may be said of the few otliers, as, for example, in the English words 

 adopted ai-e found, general, order, sloop, etc. 



The above facts indicate how tenacious a tropical language is of its roots ; 

 they may be said to be eradicable only with the extinction of the tribe. It 

 cannot have escaped the notice of those who have made ethnography their 

 study, that conquering nations eradicate the languages of weaker nations only 

 in their own zones of latitude, or rather in the iso-thermal lines ; w^hen they 

 overcome tropical people, they neither extrude the natives, nor in any degi-ee 

 expunge the roots of their language. As their northern energy dies out, or 

 as their intercourse ceases, the remnant of their dominion is only shown by 

 partial intermixtux'e of blood and a slight glossarial adoption of words 

 expressing abstract ideas or foreign necessities. Thus, the Angles planted 

 their blood and language over the middle portion of Great Britain, extruding the 

 Celtic population and their language ; and the Saxons over the southern, in a 

 parallel line. So also the Franks over the northern portion of France, again 

 parallel, to both of these movements. The "Vandals forcing their way South 

 as far as Barbary, effected no permanent change on the conquered races or 

 languages. Again, in more modern times, the British have overrun North 

 America, extruding the natives, eradicating their language, and planting 

 themselves and their own. Equally have they overrun Hindostan, but with 

 no visible effect on the races or languages. Northern nations may cross the 

 tropics, and implant themselves and their languages in their respective 

 ojDposite zones, but if they intrude beyond the iso-thermal lines of their 

 original habitat, they degenerate, and their languages deteriorate or die out. 

 Thus, the Portuguese have affected the natives and languages of equatorial 

 Brazil but partially, while the Spaniards on the La Plata, in a climate con- 

 genial to them, have spread out and extruded the indigenous inhabitants. 

 So it is in the region more immediately under discussion, viz., the Indian 

 Archipelago. 



The Chinese, Thibetan, and Ultra- Gangetic natives have had intercourse 

 with the Indian Archipelago from time immemorial, and from whence a 



