THE PIGMIES. I 



•Siamese aud Laosian vocabularies published by Latham ( 1 ) and 

 could not trace any resemblance. Nor could I find any on com- 

 paring these again with M. de la Croix's vocabulary of the Perak 

 Sakai's. ( 2 ) M. de la Ceoix only finds twelve Malay words out 

 of the ninety which he gives. The .Russian traveller Miklucho- 

 Maclay had previously gathered, among the wild tribes of Johore 

 and further inland, one hundred and seventy words, ( 3 ) which 

 several Malays, on being consulted, declared were perfectly un- 

 known to them. Lastly Mr. de Castel^au had also arrived 

 independently at analagous conclusions. (*) From this aggregate 

 of facts, it seems to me to result that the original Negritos. of the 

 Malay Peninsula must have had a language of their own, which 

 has been almost completely forgotten by a portion of their des- 

 cendants and a little less so perhaps by others, because they are 

 all more or less crossed with Malays, no doubt with Siamese also, 

 and probably with other ethnological elements still undetermined. 

 Was this .language connected in any way with that of the Min- 

 copies ? This is but an hypothesis, but the comparative proximity 

 of the two races allows us at all events to put the question. 

 Messrs. Man and Temple will perhaps one day tell us how much 

 truth there may be in this conjecture. ( 5 ) They may also suc- 



(i) Elements of Comparative Philology, p. 51. 



( 2 ) Perak is situated about 2° or 3° North, of Malacca towards the mid- 

 dle of the western coast of the Peninsula. We have no particulars as to 

 the Negrito -Malay tribes which may exist further north. 



(3) Dialects of the Melanesian Tribes in the Malay Peninsula (Journal of 

 the Straits Branch oftlie Royal Asiatic Society, No. 1, p. 38.) From Johore 

 in the south of the Peninsula to Ligor in the south of Siam, the Russian 

 traveller has ascertained the identity of language among tribes which are 

 isolated and have no communication with each other. This result seems 

 to have struck him with astonishment. There is, however, nothing in it 

 which will not seem quite natural to any one who studies the history of Ne- 

 gritos taken as a whole. 



O) Revue de Philologie, 1876. [ I am indebted to M. Montano for this 

 reference.] 



(5) It would, I think, be most interesting, with reference to this enquiry, 

 to find out what language is spoken by the Negritos who have recently been 

 discovered in the small archipelago of Tenasserim. Their comparative isola- 

 tion might encourage a hope that their primitive language has been less alter- 

 ed than on the continent. 



