COMPARATIVE VOCABULARY. 160 



Many of the words in the Vocabulary are familiar to me. The 



majority, if not all of them, appear to me, however, of Malayan 

 rather than Papuan root, and it is the dialects, grammatical struc- 

 ture of language, and customs of the black race, by whatever name 

 called, rather than Malayan, that I am in want of. 



It often occurred to me that my old friend the Australian 

 "Bunyip" was nothing more than a black fellow's exaggerated 

 description of a crocodile, and now -that J see that with a .slight 

 change its name runs from "Buaya" in Malay^ to " Buyah " in 

 Semans:. I am inclined to the idea more than ever. 



NOTE bv Sib F. A. WELD. 



The Crocodile or "Alligator'' abounds in some rivers of North- 

 ern Australia: tribes wandering South and holding no further 

 communication with the North may have retained the memory of 

 their former enemy • 



