116 THE ABORIGINAL NAMES OF RIVERS 
guages. There is in Mala mbak a wave, kumbah to wash, 
Tambak a fishpond, tumba to draw water. In Sum i 
ariver named Jambi, exhibiting the combination of letters mb. 
Moreover, this river gives name to a district, which drains the 
waters of several other streams besides the Jambi itself. In the 
Feejee vocabularies occur the words dhomba to throw water, mbrau, 
a wave, tomba a bay of the sea. The foregoing forms, both Mala 
and Feejee, are in mb ; but the Malay supplies some in mp, thus : 
ampah and limpah, to overflow. But in dealing with mb there 
must not be omitted the form ambu, water, in the Sanserit. 
The Latin nimbus, a rain-cloud, is also an example to the point. 
It may be noted that while the stately forms in mb are so con- 
spicuous in Australian, Malay, and Feejee, they seem to be very 
deficient in Maori. 
Amplifications of MB in MBL, MBN, MBK. 
The addition of the liquid letters 1 nr to the combination mb 
produces some of those euphonious names which have often been 
admired; thus there are Barambil Creek, Bourimbla Creek, 
Currambene Creek, Wiambone Creek, Piambong Creek, Piambra 
Creek, and Wamberal Lake. 
In looking to other languages root-words can be found in mbl 
and mbn referring to water, thus in Malay ombal means wel, 
tembul is to rise to the surface, galambung is foam, kijambang is a 
water plant, panambang a ferryman, tambang to be conveyed by 
water, lenbang to drain. Including this last word is the name 
Palembang, which is applied to designate a district in Sumatra, 
of Greek, Latin, and Gothic stocks. There is the Greek ombros & 
shower, with its near relative in Latin wmber, also a shower. More- 
over the Ambrones were so called as being river people, _ 
Umbria seems to have been so called as being a river country. 
fact, forms in mbr are of special interest. The existence of words 
of this form in different languages and among different peoples in 
e history 
Europe, is held as pointing to a very important fact in th 
of the human family. It is held that this form mbr must have 
i in existence while the human race were associated 
in Asia, and therefore before that dispersion whereby the form 
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