348 JOHN FRASER. 
‘with corresponding Malay words or closely resemble them. I give 
a few examples of this similarity :— 
Samoan. Malay. Samoan. Malay. 
ala, ‘path, road’ dara fua, ‘fruit’ buah 
asu, ‘smoke’ asap fulu, ‘hair’ bulu 
ate, ‘liver’ ati malu, ‘soft’ maru 
ulu, ‘ head’ ulu mata, ‘eye, face’ mata 
utu, ‘louse’ kutu mua, ‘first’ mula 
fanua, ‘land ’ bentia palu, ‘to mix’ palu 
fatu, ‘hard; stone’ batu tau, ‘ year’ taun 
fili, ‘to choose’ pilih vai, ‘water’ wai 
The simple forms also of the personal pronouns are similar, and 
the numerals beyond ‘ three.’ 
On such resemblances as these the theory of the identity of the 
two languages rests; and, for the most part, the rest of the hun- 
dred Malayan words, which are quoted in support of the theory, 
are certainly cognate to their Samoan equivalents. But the argu- 
ment is weakened by the fact that several of these words are not 
Polynesian merely but Oceanic, that is, they belong to all the 
Melanesian dialects as well. Thus, fatu, mata, vai, are common 
words everywhere among the blacks of the New Hebrides ; kutwu 
: 
J 
: 
is found as kutta in South Australia; malw is mul-mul in the 
New Hebrides, and it comes evidently from the same root as the 
Greek malakos, ‘soft’ and the Latin mollis; mua, ‘first,’ is more 
nearly allied to the Albannic™ word muwka, ‘first’ than to the 
Malay mula. Therefore, if similarity of words is to be our only 
guide, I could say that the Samoans are near of kin to the Ebudan* 
blacks, and even to our natives in South Australia. 
Whatever theory may be used to account for the fact, it is 
certain that, so far as these hundred words are concerned, the 
similarity between Malayan and Samoan is remarkable; but, in- 
stead of the Polynesians having got them from the Malays, it is — 
* T use this word, Albannic, to designate the islands immediately to the 
east and south-east of New Guinea, and Ebudan for the New Hebrides. 
