THE PIGMIES, 5 



gard to language. This has in some instances, completely dis- 

 appeared, through contact "with superior populations, even where 

 Negrito groups, numerically strong and enjoying a certain inde- 

 pendence, have preserved a comparative purity of blood. 



This fact had been ohserved in the Philippines, from the earliest 

 period of the Spanish occupation. Even in the island named after 

 them, these diminutive negroes spoke Bisaya, one of the local Malay 

 dialects, ( x ) to which however they added a great number of 

 foreign words. It seems to me probable that these latter were 

 so many surviving witnesses of the primitive language. 



Still more must this have been the case in Luzon. The evi- 

 dence given on this point by de la. Fuente, ( 2 ) has lately been 

 fully confirmed by the researches of Dr. Montano, who has kindly 

 phiced his unpublished notes at my disposal with a liberality for 

 which I am happy to be able to thank him here. This traveller, 

 who speaks Malay fluently and is acquainted with several of its 

 dialects, was able to detect, in the Aeta language, not only gram- 

 matical forms, but even a vocabulary, almost exclusively Tagaloc. 

 One by one, he verified one hundred and four words collected by 

 Mr. Meyer in the dialect of the Mariveles. He noted down those 

 which seemed to be foreign to the Malay languages and could find 

 but seventeen. He is still unable to speak decidedly about some 

 of these. ( :i ) 



(!) "La lingua dell'Isola detta de' Negri e la Bissaya stessa col miscuglio 

 di moltissime parole forestiere." (I/Abbs Torres, quoted by Prichard, 

 Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, Vol. V, p. 221.) 



( 2 ) Quoted by Prichard, loc. cit. 



( 3 ) M. Montano fouud moreover in the same vocabulary, translated into 

 the Negrito dialect of Zam bales, thirteen words which are not Malay. He 

 also obtained, not without some trouble, from an Aeta, the following verse 

 of a sons- : 



MakaaUs 



alto 



ina, 





I am going 



(oh my) 



friend 





maltpaha 



bait, 



Ita ina 





Be very 



prudent 



thou, friend 





Ta ! ma 



papaka 



sayou, alto 



ina, 



Ah! I am going 



very 



far my 



friend, 



Into ka 



man a 



bibing 



ianmo. 



while you 



stop in 



dwelling 



yours. 



Ha nag 



bau.iian 



dolipatan 



mo. 



Never 



(your) village 



will be forgotten 



. (by) m 



