4 



THE ETHNOLOGY OF THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



Bulotu or Purotu of the Ionian and Samoan i<knde«, a tarffe 

 island to the N.W. where their race originated and where the 

 -i>uk of the deceased nobles and matabulais live a* gods, *s Bum. 

 ■jie of the Ainboyna group) and he considers it within the hounds 

 • ■!' probability that this is the spot in the Indian Archipelago from 

 u hich the Polynesians emigrated. 



Lesson, reviving the opinions of La Gohien, Rejmratcd the 

 1'hilipino and Microneaian islanders from the Malay o- Polynesian*, 

 and, deriving both directly from the Mongolian (Mid- Asian) rnee, 

 liestowed upon them the spoliation of Pelagian Mongoles, Lutkr, 

 who, at a luler period, explored Micronesia, diff^ro entirely trom 

 Lisson's conclusions, maintains that the inhabitant* could not have 

 l-cen derived either from the Mongolian part of the Continent or 

 from Japan, and assigns to ihem an Indonesian origin. He ad* 

 mined, at the same time, that many of their arts and ca«lotiH were 

 not Polynesian but were evidently derived from the Chinese or 

 Japanese. Mr Hale has remarked that the Micronesian tribes are 

 nowhere to be found in a pure state hut always with a greater or 

 less mixture of the Malayu-Polynesians, to whom they are superior 

 m character, as well as in many arts evidently derived from ahightr 

 ''iviliAation than any thai has been indigenous in the islands ot 

 the latter. He concludes that while? the semi-civilization of th.; 

 Polynesians has been attained by bringing to perfection the rude 

 arts and institutions natural to the savage state, that of the Miero- 

 nesians has resulted from simplifying and adapting to more re*- 

 iricted circumstances, the inventions and usages of civilization. He 

 •mtertains no doubt that, by a com prison of language, physical 

 traits, customs and traditions, the origin and migrations of th- 

 Micronesian tribes may be traced out, and adds that few more 

 important fields now remain open for ethnographical research. 

 l)r Prichard considered U evident that these tribes were a branch 

 of the Malayo-Polynesian stock, probably more nearly allied to 

 the Philipmc'than to the Polynesian people, and that their manner* 

 had been modified by some foreign intercourse. 



The relation of the Malayu- Polynesian tribes to the peoples oi 

 other regions has never been systematically investigated. Bopp 

 alone has endeavoured to connect them with the ancient Iranian 

 races. Bunseu merely indicate* a belief that the Malay u bears 

 the characters of the "not- Iranian branch of the Japhetic family," 

 Irat he does not advert to Bopp's enquiries nor enter on the 

 subject himself. To L<»yden the Malayu seemed in its original 

 formation to have been monosyllabic like the Indian languages 

 He considered that one of its three glossarinl portions was 

 connected not onlv with the other insular languages but "with wmc 

 the monosyllabic, as the Burmese and Siamese, while the 

 majority of the words, at lea«t in the maritime dialects, wer* 

 borrowed from the Sanskrit and the Arabic, the simpler and 

 more essential being however indigenous, or rath«r corruptions 



