SOME REMARKS ON THE AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGBS. 243 



said that the Polynesians are Malays. Well, let us see. If the 

 Samoans are Malays, then the Duke of York Islanders are Malays; 

 for the word mua, which is essential to the Samoan language, is 

 the same word as the Tukiok muka ; therefore the Papuans of 

 that island also are Malays ! But the corresponding Malay word is 

 miila, 'in front,' 'foremost,' 'at lirst,' and it is certain that muka 

 can never be formed from mula; for, while k may become I, the 

 letter 1, when once established in a word, cannot revert to k. Thus 

 the Malay language might be said to have come from the Duke 

 of York Island, at least so far as the evidence of this word goes ! 

 But I acknowledge that they may both be taken from one common 

 source, and this I believe, is the true solution of the question. 

 Where shall we find that common source ? The root-form of 

 mula, muka, mua, and of all the others, is ma, mu, and if we can 

 find that root, it will be easy to understand how all these words 

 have been formed independently from that original root ; and it 

 will then be unnecessary to say that the Samoan language is of 

 Malay origin, or that the Papuans of the New Britain isles are 

 using a Malay language. Now, in Southern India, there is a 

 group of languages called the Dra vidian, from the Sanskrit word 

 Dravida, which, in the Mahabharata, is the name given to these 

 aboriginal inhabitants of India. They now occupy the mountains 

 of the Dekkan, and the coasts both to the east and the west of 

 that. There are twelve dialects ; some of these people are very 

 barbarous, the mountaineers ; others, again, are very civilized ; 

 the Klings, for instance, of Madras are clever at figures and in- 

 telligent; their services are much in demand all over the Eastern 

 Archipelago ; and in Penang, Singapore, and elsewhere, you may 

 b>e sure to find a Kling engaged as a head book-keeper in a ware- 

 house, or thriving as a merchant ; they are said to be the Scotch 

 ■of the East. Souie of these Dra vidian tribes are considered by the 

 best authorities to be certainly negroid, and in England Prof. 

 Flower, from an examination of their crania, has classed them as 

 kinsmen of the Australians. One of the most cultivated languages 

 of the group is the Tamil, and the Tamilians are known to have 

 class-marriage laws similar to those in Fiji and Australia. Now 

 for ' first ' the Tamil says mudal, and this mudal is a verbal 

 noun meaning 'a beginning,' 'priority' in time or place. The root 

 is mu, and dal is a formative syllable. The mu is, without doubt, 

 our Australian root ma, mo, mu. Bishop Caldwell of Tinnevelly, 

 who has carefully examined the Dra vidian languages, says — "Mu- 

 dal is connected with the Tamil postposition mun, 'before'; mudal 

 is used as the root of a new verb 'to begin.' Mu evidently signifies 

 priority, and may be the same as the Tamil m u, 'to be old,' mud u, 

 • antiquity.'" I think there is a better derivation than that. The 

 Sanskrit mula means 'origin, cause, commencement,' and is the 



