234 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XIV. 



consult Baldaeus' Description of the Malabar Coast, which 

 comprises the rudiments of the language, and an immense 

 work in twelve volumes compiled by that illustrious man, 

 the late Henry Hadrian van Reede, a member of the Order 

 of Knighthood of this State. The title of this book is Hortus 

 Malabaricus, and in it the names of trees and herbs are 

 expressed, not only in Arabic and Brahmin or Sanscrit 

 characters, but also in Malabar. Here any one can exercise 

 himself not only in the reading of the Malabar characters, 

 but he can also pick out the proper name of plants and some 

 other names which are explained in the description, such 

 as — 



Nir, water 



Mara, tree 



Pou, flower 



Kelengou, root 

 Para, branch 

 Nella, good 

 Vara, bad 

 Welli, great 

 Cit, small 



Kal, stone 

 Malan, mountain 

 Ponna, gold 

 Valli, ivy 



Veluta and ven, white 

 Schovanna, red 

 Inschi, hot, burning 

 Katu, a wood 

 Naja, serpent 



and more which help in the composition of the names 

 given to the plants. 



VIII. — Of the difference between the Malay and Malabar 

 Languages. 



What we have noted concerning the Malabar language 

 sufficiently shows that it is not one with the Malay language 

 of which I have treated in section I. 



Neither the form of the letters nor the sounds, nor their 

 significations agree, nor are they spoken in the same places. 

 In fact there is nothing calculated to persuade anyone that the 

 Malabar and Malay tongues are one and the same, unless it 

 be a certain similarity between the names Malabar and Malay. 

 Nevertheless they are distinct regions, Malabar in the Indian 

 peninsula on this side of the Ganges, and Malais or the 

 Malacca country in the Indian peninsula beyond the Ganges, 

 which, in the most accurate map of the kingdom of Siam 

 and of the neighbouring countries lately published by the 



