ON THE 'MALA'YU NATION, m 



exists, and the sources from which we must trace the origin of the nation 

 and of its- language, I shall only at present refer to the enlightened Es- 

 say on the In do Chinese nations, in a preceding volume of the Asiatick 

 Researches; the enlarged views and determined positions in which, will-, 

 I am convinced, be the more confirmed and verified,-, in the proportion i 

 that they may be investigated.* 



The most obvious and natural theory on the origin of the Malays, is 

 that they did not exist as a separate and distinct nation, until the arrival 

 of the Arabians in the eastern seas. At the present day they seem to 

 differ from the more original nations, from which they sprung in about 

 the same degree, as the Chuliaks of Kiting differ/ from the Tamul and 

 Teiinga nations,- on' the' Coromandel coast, or the Map it 'las' of Malabar 

 differ from the Nairs, both which people appear, in like manner with the 

 Malays, to have been gradually formed as nations, and separated from > 

 their original stock by the admixture of Arabian blood, and the introduc- 

 tion of the Arabic language and Moslem religion/ - 



The word Jahwi so much insisted on by the author of the " Rough 

 Sketch," is the Malay term for any thing mixed or crossed ; as when the 

 language of one country is written in the character of another, it is term- 

 ed E'hdsa Jahwi 'or mixed language : or when a child is born of a Kiting 

 father and Malay mother, it is called Anak Jahwi, a child of mixed race. 

 Thus the Maldyn language, being written in the Arabic character is term- 

 ed B'hasa Jahwi ; the Malays, as a nation, distinct from the fixed popu- 

 lation of the eastern islands, not possessing any written character, but 

 what they borrow from the Arabs. 



* Leydew on the languages and literature of the Jndo Chinese nations. Asiatick 

 Mescaidies, Vol.. X„ 



