202 HILL TRIBES OF FORMOSA. 
On looking carefully through Crawrurp’s “ Malay Grammar and 
Dictionary,” I can only find the above words which resemble some- 
what the Tang&io words of same meaning, and it is this fact which 
leads me to suppose that, in the north at least, the Malays have not 
amalgamated freely with the hill tribes, however much they may 
have done so with the Pepowhans of the plains. From this fact 
also we may conclude it to be probable that the first inhabitants 
arrived in the island before the Malays, and brought with them a 
language more ancient than the mixed language of the Archipelago, 
extending back further than the exportation of the clove and nut- 
meg to western markets, and prior to the days when these arti- 
cles and others lke cinnamon and camphor (both apparently 
indigenous to Formosa) were known to people in Europe. Hf, 
after eareful comparison with Archipelagan languages, the dialects 
of Formosa, and especially those spoken by the hill tribes of the 
north, are found to be entirely dissimilar, or containing only a few 
words having certain features of similarity, it will, I think, be found 
that the root of Formosan hill dialects will be traceable more 
directly to the dialects of Polynesia and Philippine islands, from 
which parts, I am at times inclined to think, most of the castaways 
came at all sorts of intervals. 
With only limited vocabularies before me, it is impossible to 
follow up the research in this direction, but others may be in a 
position to do so, if in possession of more words than are given in 
such works as Crawrurp’s “ Malay Grammar and Dictionary.” In 
the dialects of Formosa, I think, the secret of “probable origin” 
lies, and in offering these few ideas thereon, I trust it will be 
understood, that I do so simply in accordance with a desire to con- 
tribute towards the general object of the Society, and with a 
strong hope that this imperfect and unsatisfactory statement of my 
ideas on the subject may induce others, who have studied not only 
the cognate but lost and unwritten languages of the East, to open 
out the subject and add to the general knowledge of every one in- 
terested in such matters. 
The present subject might be enlarged considerably by refer- 
ence to peculiar customs, such as tattooing, as compared with like 
customs of inhabitants of Pacific islands, Pintados of Luzon, &c. ; 
