12$ ON THE MALA'YXJ NATION. 



cal character from the Malays ;* an opinion that could only hope to 

 attract attention, from the confident manner in which it is asserted. The 

 proofs that seem to have occurred to the same author, on the " evident 

 48 antiquity" of the language, and its being from " the primaeval stock of 

 " Javan, one of the sons of Japheth, the third son of Noah," and from 

 the roots of which, Persian, Sanscrit, and Arabic derivatives and corn- 

 pounds have been formed, might as well be adduced in supporting a- 

 similar comparison between the English and' Latin, whence we should 

 be rather surprized to find the former, from the number of ancient word's 

 It has adopted, asserted to be the parent of the Roman tongue. 



It is easy and natural to acco unt for the Malays having with their ra- 

 ligion adopted the written character of the Arabs, and I have no. hesita- 

 tion in asserting that neither Malay writings nor inscriptions, in their 

 present characters, can be traced back to an sera of greater antiquity 

 than the invention of the modern Arabic alphabet, or beyond the pe- 

 riod at which the great intercourse between the Arabians and' eastern na- 

 tions took place. Admitting, however, that more early writings did exist, 

 there is no reason why they may not have been preserved on Sumatra, m 

 the more ancient and original characters of the Battas, the Rejdngs or 

 the Lampungs: on Java-, and the Celebes, in the characters of the Javanese 

 and Bug is nations, and even on the Malay peninsula, in some modifica- 

 tion of the Siamese character. 



For the compound parts of the Maldyu language, as it at present 



* " A Rough Sketch of part of an intended essay towards ascertaining, deducing, elucidat- 

 (t mg and correctly establishing the rudiments of the Juhjcee or Jahwee language, vulgar- 

 " ly called the Malay language by, J. S." and published at Prince of Wales Island, 1807 

 See pages l > $. ) & 3, 



