10 DIALECTS OF THE MELANESIA*' TE1BES. 



Malays,, and, in consequence of this, more or less modified their 

 habits of life, it was, again, these same people who attached them- 

 selves to the manners and occupations of their fore fathers, and 

 became in their turn the best qualified to trace out the various 

 products of their own home-jungles. Wandering isolated in the 

 to i est s, they had but few opportunities to hold any dealings with 

 the Malays; and naturally kept more exclusively to their own lan- 

 guage than those who trafficked with the Malays more frequent- 

 ly, and lived in their neighbourhood. Thus it happened that in 

 preserving the old language (going as it did hand in hand with 

 primitive habits of life ) they found a secret means of bringing 

 to their homes a rich booty from the jungle. This superstition 

 is believed in various parts of Johor, and will, for a long time, 

 protect the ancient language from total extinction ; and even if 

 the signification of many words is wholly forgotten, yet will they 

 still remain as the true rudiments of the language, and serve as 

 a monument of the original race of the " Orang Utan." 



I found it impossible to ascertain sufficiently the number and 

 limitation of the different dialects. That more have existed 

 is probable. I have arranged, somewhat arbitrarily, the following 

 words in two dialects. I have only noted down (as said before) 

 those words which appeared to me not Malay. (-1) 



" While searching for Camphor, they abstain from certain kinds of food, 

 ee eat a little earth, and use a kind of artificial language called the Bhasa 

 " Kapor (Camphor language). This I found to be the same on the Sidili. 

 " the Indau and Batu Pahat. From the subjoined specimens it will be seen 

 ee that most of the words are formed on the Malayan, and in many cases 

 " by merely substituting for the common name one derived from some 

 " quality of the object, as " grass-fruit" for rice, " far sounding" for gun, 

 " Short-legged" for hog, " leaves" for hair &c. 



(Here follow 80 words of which 33 are Malay, and of the rest none re- 

 semble in the least those given by M. de Maclay.) " It is believed that if 

 " care be not taken to use the Bhasa Kapor great difficulty will be experienc- 

 " ed in finding Camphor trees, and that when found the Camphor will not 

 " yield itself to the collector. Whoever may have been the originator of this 

 " superstition, it is evidently based on the fact that although Camphor trees 

 " are abundant, it very frequently happens that no Camphor can be obtain- 

 " ed from them; " were it otherwise," said an old Benua, who was singularly 

 " free from superstitions of any kind, Camphor is so valuable that not a 

 " single full-grown tree would be left in the forest. Camphor is not col- 

 " lected by the Bermun (Negri Sembilan) tribes, at least on the Western 

 " Side of the Peninsula, and they are unacquainted with the Bhasa 

 " Kapor."] 



