SOUTHERN INDIA AND THE STRAITS. 73 



from Hindustani), Tain, appam. To the above list may be added 

 the curious Malay word for " a bridegroom, " mempelai, which is 

 derived from the pure Tamil rndpillai, " a bridegroom. " This, 

 again, is indicative of a very early Dravidian influence on the 

 Malays. Their previous Hindu civilization had given them the 

 ceremony of marriage, but it was left for the Tamils to super add 

 a special title for the man on the eve of marriage, to whose 

 position as such the Dravidians attach an unusual amount of 

 dignity and importance. 



I think I have said enough to show the fallacy into which 

 Marsden fell in refusing to ascribe to the Dravidians of Southern 

 India any influence on the language of the Malays, and to make 

 it plain that the influence of the former people over the speech 

 and social life of the latter began at a very early date, though 

 not so early so that of the unknown race of Hiudus who re- 

 claimed Malaya from its pristine barbarism. The Southern In- 

 dians came as traders pure and simple, bartering for the wealth 

 of the rich tropic forests the products of civilization. They do 

 not seem to have settled down or intermarried with the Malays 

 to any great extent — not. certainly, so much as in Acheh, where 

 considerable colonies of Tamils took up their permanent abode. 

 Their object being merely commerce, they went as they came, 

 returning year by year as the monsoon favoured. In the earlier 

 stages of this intercourse the Malays were probably Hindus like 

 themselves, and would thus have admitted their visitors to a 

 greater degree of familiarity and fellowship than is now the 

 case. Then came the Arab conversion, favoured, no doubt, by 

 such Tamils as had already embraced Islam ; but from that time 

 forth the Hindus became kajirs to the Malays, and the closeness 

 of their intercourse declined. The commerce, however, con- 

 tinued as before, and the relations which the Portuguese found 

 existing in the beginning of the 16th century were practi- 

 cally those which subsisted until the influx of Euiopean trade 

 imported a new factor into the question, and the establishment 

 of British settlements on the shores of Malaya crystallized the 

 connection between Southern India and the Straits into what 

 it is at the present day. 



Had it not been for the successful introduction of Islam in- 

 to the Far East by the proselytizing Arabs, we may suppose that 



10 



