170 FftOM CENTRAL INDIA TO POLYNESIA. 



Seem probable. The connexion between the ideas of " spread- 

 ing out " (Malay hampar) and "flying" (Mon-Khmer pur) 

 seems to me highly conjectural; nor can it be said to be much 

 assisted by the Mon gapaw-H, " to go around." 



In one or two instances we find an unfortunate diversity 

 of opinion among our authorities in Malayo-Ploynesian etymo- 

 logy. Thus according to Dr. Brandstetter the Malay word 

 telinga, "ear," contains a root ling, identical with ding, which 

 in its variant form dhig also occurs in Malay dengar, and which 

 he interprets as meaning " to hear." Professor Schmidt on 

 the other hand takes the word telinga, to be derived from a 

 root ling ("found in teliling, etc.) meaning "to turn," " to re- 

 turn, " " round, " and connects the word with the shape of the 

 external human ear, not with the function of the internal part 

 of the organ. Who can say wmich is right? True, Professor 

 Schmidt gives a similar etymology for the Malay Mtping, which 

 also means " ear;" hut there is no more certainty in this deri- 

 vation than in the other. In fact there is less: for the par- 

 allels quoted mean not " to wind, " as he would have it, but 

 " to hind, " "to plait " and " to weave. " It seems to me that 

 we want something more than mere conjecture to bridge the 

 gap between these conceptions and the idea of the human' (or 

 animal?) ear. Again in the word fambut, "hair," Professor 

 Schmidt finds a root but, "to roll, " to, twist," "to fall." 

 This does not seem very apposite, but he gets over the difficulty 

 by explaining that rambut, means " that which is matted." 

 The majority of modern Indonesians have lank hair which does 

 not form itself into a mat or mop even when allowed to grow 

 to its natural length. If the explanation is correct, we have 

 here a very valuable piece of prehistoric anthropological infor- 

 mation, namely that part of the ancestry of the very mixed 

 modern Indonesian from which he derives the essentials of his 

 language did not have lank but wavy or possibly even curly 

 hair. Unfortunately Dr. Brandstetter quite independently and 

 without any reference to the above suggested etymology points 

 out that the words for " hair " in the Indonesian languages 

 display four variants of one root, viz. buk, but, bid, and the 

 simpler form bu. That these are all in some way connected 



Jour. Straits Branch 



