LANGUAGES OF SOUTHERN INDO-CHINA. 5 



mesaticephalic, while the true Malays tend to the brachij cephalic 

 type). The three wild tribes previously mentioned, I should 

 have said, appear from descriptions and such illustrations as 1 

 have seen, to be at least in part of non-Malayan stock : some 

 authorities have insisted much upon their Caucasian type, by 

 which I suppose is meant that they differ considerably from the 

 Mongoloid type of features common to both Indo- Chines and 

 Malays. 



The Selungs, whatever their race may be, are pagans in a 

 low state of civilization, and their language is an unwritten 

 tongue. It comprises several dialects differing considerably 

 from one another, so that people from two islands barely eighty 

 miles apart have some difficulty in carrying on an intelligible 

 conversation together. Several short vocabularies* of this 

 language have been collected at various times by different 

 persons, and they serve to illustrate these dialectic variations : 

 but as it is not quite clear to which dialects they respectively 

 refer, the Selung must for our purposes be dealt with as one 

 language. It would appear to be really a Malayan language, 

 less mixed with other elements than are the tongues already 

 mentioned, and its claim to be mentioned here at all rests merely 

 on its present geographical position : but being the speech of a 

 sea-roving race of islanders it is obvious that its position does 

 not furnish such cogent evidence for the antiquity of Malayan 

 elements in Indo-China as do the inland dialects previously 

 enumerated ; nor is it as closely connected with any of them as 

 they evidently are with one another. 



It may however be said to form a link in the chain 

 between these mainland dialects and languages of the Eastern 

 Archipelago ; and that is the reason why mention is made of it 

 here, although its existence does not really affect the main 

 argument of this paper. 



It would be merely wearisome to present a whole series 

 of vocabularies of the five languages I have enumerated : a few- 

 words will serve to convey some idea of the nature of the 

 Malayan elements which they contain and will exhibit the 



* They are given in Anderson, " The Sellings of the Mergui Archi- 

 pelago." 



R. A. Soc, No. 38, 1902. 



