

1877.] Peninsula and tlie Indian Archipelago. 227 



Korinchi, the inhabitants of a hitherto unexplored valley. They are Malay, 

 Muhammadans, and speak Malay, but use a special alphabet of their own. 

 An expedition has been fitted out this year by the Dutch Geographical So- 

 ciety, one of the objects of which is to penetrate into this valley. There 

 are some savage races also, among which we have notices of the Loeboes and 

 Oeloes by Wilier and Netscher in Dutch, 1855. 



" Of the language of the inhabitants of the numerous groups of 

 islands lying off Sumatra we know little or nothing. Vocabularies are given 

 by Marsden, and by Shortt in the Malayan Miscellanies, of the Niaz dialect, 

 and the Gospel of St. Luke has been translated into that idiom by the Bri- 

 tish and Foreign Bible Society. Of the dialects of the inhabitants of the 

 Engano Islands, we have Dutch vocabularies by De Straaten and Severyn ; 

 it is totally unintelligible to the Malays ; all these races are pagans, and in 

 a very low state of civilization. 



" We cross the Java Sea to Borneo, situated on the Equator, and the 

 greatest island in the world, three times the size of Great Britain. Of the 

 interior we know little or nothing. Crawfurd is of opinion, that there may 

 be scores of tribes sj^eaking different languages, but they are all savages, 

 and mostly cannibals. No respectable indigenous civilization has sprung up on 

 the island. The coasts have been occupied by Malay settlers for more than two 

 thousand years, who in due time brought with them Muhammadanism. 

 Bugis have settled from the East, and are of the same faith. The Javan- 

 ese have made settlements and introduced Hinduism, leaving traces in ruin- 

 ed temples and names of places. The Chinese have settled on the northern 

 coast. The indigenous population is pagan, and called by the generic word 

 Dhyak. There is no alphabet, but aM inscription in an unknown tongue 

 has been found in the interior ; the natives have a kind of symbolic mode of 

 communication by notches on arrows. The greatest known tribe is the 

 Kayan. We have a vocabulary by Burn of 800 words ; Crawfurd gives a 

 vocabulary of nine languages, the Kayan, Pido-Petak, Binjuk, and others. 

 With the Muhammadan religion, the Malay language is adojDted. Latham 

 remarks that the Binjuk are maritime, and the Dhyaks landsmen. The 

 Dutch possess half the island, with a population of one million and a quar- 

 ter ; the Sultan of Brune, a name identical with Borneo, the remainder ; the 

 titles to Sarawak and Labuiau are both held of him. Gabelentz published a 

 Dhyak grammar in 1852, following that of Hardeland in 1850, who also 

 published a dictionary in 1859 ; there is another anonymous Grammar dated 

 1856 : the whole Bible has been translated by Hardeland ; Crawfurd treats 

 of the peculiarities of the language in his Malay Grammar ; Sir J. Brooke 

 gives a vocabulary ; Von Kessel published a glossary of the dialects of the 

 West Coast in 1849, and Tiedke a glossary of the Sanpit and Katingan in 

 1872 ; both are in Dutch. 



