.ETUMULOQf OF THE INDO-PAClFiC ISLANDS, 



191 



Ti^rois of the preceding ckascs exist in tha primitirfi em of 

 glosaulogy) and iha rools curienl for ihum in a family cif Janguagei 

 EQay be of gi-ealer antiquity than the formalion Uself. Tlie 

 vocables wu have examined are of difftirent agea in the Dra* 

 virian faraiiy, hut most of tlieui must be conaidered as at least 

 coeval with the formatiotj, while many of the roots have probably 

 existed from the moitosyliabic era, first receiving tUeir present 

 forois when the linj^mAtic type became Scythoid. They do not 

 necesaai ily throw any lij^hl on the archaic condition of the race or 

 OQ the early hii^tory of its civtlieaiion; for iuch terms are essential 

 elements of human speech in all ages, and they are found in the 

 vocabularies of the most barbarous as in those of the most culti- 

 ▼ated tribes. The forms of the vocables iutlicale a large measure 

 of community with the Scytbic, Caucasian, and primary Iranian 

 races, and a less one with the Semitic, but this comui unity may 

 belong solely to a very archaic and barbarpus state of society 

 simitar to tSie Austiulian^ for anything these terms can teach us. 

 I will now take a few words implying an advance beyond sueli a 

 condition, and indicating the pcwsesiiiou of certain arts and usage* 

 of a civilised cbamcler, 



Navm of Doinesiicaied Aniinah. 



The domestication of the dog, and that of the hog, of the cat 

 and of the fowl were probably amongst the primeval events of 

 human history. That of the larger quadrupeds must have been 

 later, althongh it may have long preceded the Australian era. 

 All that can in strictness be concluded from the absence of the 

 large domesticated animals in large portions of Aaonesia Is that tha 

 means of carrying them to the islands did not exist in the Austra- 

 lian and Niha-Polynesian eras. The light which tbia class of 

 names can throw on the early history of the I>raviro-Au9tP*ilian 

 family must therefort? he confined chiefly to the continental branch* 



The comparison of the names of domesticated animals is complt* 

 cated by the fact that they have been interchanged to a remarkable 

 extent. This hafi arisen from tribes being apt to apply to thoa§ 

 with which they become acquainted for the first time, the name* 

 previously current for others witli which they are familiar. It 

 is not surprising that the " cow " and the " buffalo " ebonld be 

 known by similar narnes^ or even that a tribe which possessed the 



