214 DR. BliANDSTETTER'S RESEARCHES. 



was once apui not apt, and " dead" matai, "liver" hatai, and so 

 on. But even more interesting, perhaps, is the light which these 

 common words throw on the state of civilization of the primi- 

 tive ancestors of these tribes before their dispersion. It is 

 clear from the comparative vocabulary that they were quite at 

 home on the tropical seas : they have common words for the 

 sea and the shore, for the crocodile, the prawn, the ray or 

 skate (fish), and the dugong (though the Malagasy trozona now 

 means whale, apparently); they had sails for their boats 

 and they used hooks for fishing. Two, at least, of the points 

 of the compass are represented by common words, though their 

 relative directions have shifted and no longer correspond in the 

 different languages. So too for words relating to life on land : 

 they were acquainted with rice, yams, bamboo and, probably, 

 the cocoanut and screw-palm (pandanus) ; their material civili- 

 zation comprised acquaintance with iron and, apparently, silver ; 

 they had knives and files, and hewed wood into stakes and 

 planks ; they had houses with walls and roofs ; they had pots, 

 dishes and spoons (or ladles) and mortars with pestles (probably 

 the large ones even now used for pounding rice) ; and they 

 wore garments of some sort of cloth. They had some simple 

 standards of measurement, notably the fathom (the distance 

 across the outstretched arms). They had words for " month " 

 and " year," and a series of numerals to 1000, inclusive. 

 Words relating to the transactions of life in a social community 

 are also not altoghter absent; buying and borrowing, debt and 

 payment, are ideas which appear to have been familiar to 

 them ; and they are not without words which indicate dif- 

 ferences of social rank, e. g. the existence of chiefs to whom 

 personal respect was due. The widespread institution of the 

 " taboo " appears to have already existed among them in those 

 early days. 



This is by no means an exhaustive account of the condition 

 of these people : I have merely picked out a few of the salient 

 facts embodied in Brandstetter's list of words, and these it 

 must be remembered are drawn from Tagal and Malagasy 

 only. If the other Malayan languages (whose name is legion) 

 were taken into account, many additional details could be added 

 to this outline sketch : it is enough, however, to show that such 



Jour; Straits Branch 



