68 THE ETHKOLOOT OF TBI XHB1AV ARCJUP1LAOO. 



«unc word which U uaed for, the rice fieldi which are cultured br 

 irrigation. The word if primarily connected with the flooring 

 of water, as is evident not only from its application to irrigated 

 lands, but from its being substituted for trie common word for 

 rain in the ceremonial language of Java (sawaj and used in 

 in the same sense in Bali (aaba,) # ; and I shall in a future paper 

 ihew ground for believing that the Arabian Saba, (Saeba of the 

 Hebrew*,) which owed ita existence as a fertile and populous place 

 to its irrigation, and was destroyed by the bursting of its great dam, 

 derived its name, as its king did his, from the same root, and that 

 the eastern Saba was derived from it_f That the ancient Sabean or 

 Himyarilic kingdom, through its ^reat sen port Aden, monopolised 

 the larger part of the Indian maritime trade is well known. That 

 its influence extended lo the eastern archipelago is rendered probable, 

 Amongst other things, by the evident connection of the ancient 

 Indonesian Iphabets with the Semitic. Some of their most 

 remark !* tetters which are not found in the old Indian alphabets 

 (although themselves Phoenician) are Semitic. { 



* It appear* to be connect*! with the Arabic aaba, " to flow aa water." Wa P 

 •«», An, ab, appears lobe one of the roost widVlj prevalent roots for u?oter,--*«fl, 

 wot, Malay (apparently from *ba,bj the common prooswof ttwUfMtiM :) bO$ 

 ram, Cel*bc3 ; yvw\ r !*\i>k , Aibtnil. Polyn. ; by rejecting r utai water, a stream, 

 fi. E. Indonesian *rd Polynesian. 



* The Indians derived toe name from that of a aperies of mJttett extensively caltl- 

 fated In Africa and India Qoara, jowara /tit/, dura Aft. apparently I ientiftei by 

 the common permutation of J and d ) and a* thb, anil not rice* was probibfy the 

 earn of the Sabao valler, the word Saba was there connected with or apidisJ 10 it, 

 {tut as 3«wa tc h now connected with rice culture by Irrigation, a* tt proWy woe 

 at in earlier period with the millet culture by irrigation. In the Arcnipelago. A 

 ■pedes of millet is called Jau and jawa In Malay. It If probable there ore tnti the 

 aame root enter* into the name of the millet. We mar go lurthcr, iur the name of 

 tica itself nivara, wtra ke evidently con -aim one of the roots that enter into 

 Jotoara, so that the name o£»both the principal Asiatic cereals poind to culture ' 



J The olriVst Indonesian alphabets belong to a western connection anterior to that 

 great one which Hindu bed Java and other regions, produced the Kawi langu- 

 age and Introduced the later Indian alphabet*. The old Indonesian at phaheti are 

 rren more ancient than the southern Indian and Transindian, which have also their 

 Indonesian representative*. They evidently belong to the era when alphabet* were 

 first introduced Into 8. India from the west. In all probability by the flimyarklc 

 navigators from Aden, or the Phoenician* from the Persian Gulf. The rectilinear 

 and angular character anlgtvat simplicity of some of them, give them a place inter- 

 mediate between the cuneiform and the simplest Phoenician. I allude Lhiu briefly 

 to this important subject, ae 1 will trvat it aeiwr^flv in the urxl number of lb J* 

 Journal, and state the evidence tending to shew that these alphabets were mainly 

 adaptations of early Semitic one*, lntrxlu.c.*l hy Himyarltlc traders, although one 

 arc n- arer the oldest Indian, 



Amor^t the most important historiral facts connected with onr enquiriai are 

 those 'hat throw light on anient navigation and commerce. The PhamMani were 

 a civilised raanfime people S.0O0 to 9,000 fi. C, and probably long before; tha 

 Sabean Aral-a must have been so a few centuries later, and long before the time of 

 fiolomau.c, 1050 B.C; and the Indian* louse before tit nu cflOQ tt.U The Pbsenicans 

 and Arnhe were exceedingly bold, hardy and enterprising sailors, aa 'ud^ed the com- 

 parariTtf rudeness of their vessel*, their wwit of th« compass and the im;*rfectiQU 

 af geographical science, eompelled than to be, if they MUght distant countries 

 at at We shall in a future paper consider the amount of positive evidence 

 af the ancient Arab* or Phaa.cian* oaring themselves reached the Indian 

 AxhipaUgo. Tosre is nothing Improbable En the 'bypothasii Their nari- 



