omitted; three-fourths of the nouns are formed by addition of particles to the verb; there is no passive voice; all animate objects have one determined prefix, and inanimate another; and as an instance of the redundancy of vocables, it may be stated, that there are nine different words for "carrying" with reference to the hand, head, &c. The word strong" is a portion of seventy-five compounds, and the word "to do," implying a sense of action, appears in one hundred and thirty-five compounds. There is an abundant Literature. The nation is civilised, strong, and, until the French occupation, warlike and ambitious. Within the memory of man the sovereigns were too proud to give a personal audience to the ambassadors of the rulers of India. The Dialect of the three provinces varies to a certain extent. A Dictionary was published at Rome in 1654 A.D. with a short Grammar. The standard Dictionary is in Latin. A Grammar and Vocabulary was published at Paris for the special use of students and the French officials. The Language is included in the course of the Ecole des Langues Orientales at Paris.

The Paloung Language is spoken by a race residing in an enclave within the territory of Independent Burma, surrounded by Tibeto-Burman and Tai populations. Our knowledge of this is very scanty indeed. Logan assigns this Language, of which we have Vocabularies, to the MonAnam Family, but by other authorities, such as Bigandet and Anderson, it is claimed for the Tai Family. A British agent is now established at Bhamo, so we have hope for light in these dark places.

In addition to the Kambojan and Lao Languages above described, there are at least a score of Languages spoken on the banks of the River Mekong, and its numerous confluents, and in the mountain chain extending from Tonquin to French Cochin-China. According to the custom of these polyglot regions, every town has at least four names, being known under a different combination of syllables by the Siamese, Annamites, Kambodians, and savage people.

I

Thus these wild savage Pagan races are themselves called Penoms by the Kambodians, Khu by the Siamese, Moi by the Annamites. All these words mean "savage," and the Chinese use Lawa in much the same sense. Garnier remarks on the important affinity of the Kambojan with the Languages of some of these savage races. We are in an absolutely incognita terra, and require a master-mind, like that of Hodgson, to collect materials during a patient notetaking of twenty-five years, and a fine discernment, like that of Max Müller, to arrange them. They have no peculiar Character, no Literature, no Grammatical Notes, and but very scant Vocabularies. Among some, like the Stieng, there is a Roman Catholic Mission maintained by devoted Frenchmen. Our authorities here are Garnier and Bastian. Their lists have been carefully analysed, and, whenever the Vocabulary indicated Tibeto-Burman and Tai affinities, they have been transferred to those Families. I have been informed by Des Michels, that in his opinion the Languages of none of these tribes have affinity to the Annamite. It follows, that they must be provisionally classed as congeners of the Kambojan, and though they read as a collection of meaningless syllables, still they represent facts:—1. Mi. 2. Khmu. 3. Lemet. 4. So. 5. Nanhang. 6. Banar. 7. Cedang. 8. Huei. 9. Kat. 10. Suc. II. Stieng. 12. Proom. 13. Hin. 14. Sue. 15. Lawa or Doe. 16. Binna.

There is still a residuum on my list of Languages, or Dialects of Languages, indicated by name only, and not represented by Vocabularies, or attached to any location. These must be left to the care of future explorers and linguists. While I am writing, I hear of one traveller having for the first time traversed the Watershed, which separates the basin of the Upper Mekong from the China Sea. Another traveller has forced his way from Bassac on the River Mekong up into the Lao country, and thence into Yunan. Twenty-five years hence the Maps of Indo-China may be as full of accurate detail, as those of British India are now.

CHAPTER IX.

MALAYAN FAMILY.

I NOW pass into the Indian Archipelago, and, with the exception of the narrow Peninsula of Malacca, leave the continent of Asia, and find myself in a new terminology of Polynesia, Indonesia, and Malaisia, besides numerous other compounds of the word for island. In some linguistic books the whole Family of Languages as far as Easter Island is called the Polynesian, including the Malayan as a sub-Family. There is, therefore, a wider and narrower use of the term. Indian culture, Indian religion, the Indian Character, and Indian names accompany me, but the race and the Language have wholly changed. As there is no actual physical boundary to this portion of the inquiry, such as was supplied by the coast-line of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula, I must proceed to draw a line on the outer edge of the Shallow-Sea region, so as to include all the islands on that submarine plateau, whose Fauna is absolutely, and whose Flora and Ethnic and Linguistic features to a great degree are distinct from the Deep-Sea region, or Papuanesia. It exceeds the line at some points, so as to include particular islands, such as the Celebes, Molucca, and Timour Groups. Two strongly contrasted races occupy these islands, which, if lumped together, would form a large continent. First, the Malay, a brown race with lank hair; secondly, the Negrito, with black skin and curly hair. Between these are the Alfurese, the exact position of which it is hard to determine. Wallace, in his survey of the whole Malay Archipelago, gives specimens of fiftynine Languages, but he omits some, which did not come

within his scope. Here lies the work of the philologists of the next generation, who are advised to leave the wellworn tracks of the Aryan Family, and bring order out of the existing confusion in the Malayan Family. Geographically and linguistically this region is part of Asia, while the portion, which we reject, is for the same reasons part of Australasia. A somewhat different method has to be pursued in the description of this Family. Islands do not make good Language-Fields. If large, like Java, Sumatra, Celebes, and Borneo, they may comprise several Languages; if small, they may be included in part or entirely within the Language-Field of their larger neighbours. All islands are liable to the linguistic difficulty of their littoral being occupied by a superior seafaring and commercial race, either continuously or in detached "campongs," while the interior and unexplored mountains become the refuge of shy and uncivilised indigenes. In some cases there is a well-settled Language, if not literary, at least uniform and notorious. In other cases there is a score of ill-defined mutually unintelligible Languages, without any specific name, lumped together under a general name, such as Alfurese, or not attempted to be defined at all. I have tried by the device of conventional pecked lines to break up the Archipelago into enclaves, so as to render description intelligible. In some cases tribes, speaking separate Languages, communicate with each other in a form of Malay more or less pure, which has thus become the Lingua-franca of the Archipelago. Any approximation of the amount of population, except in the island of Java, is impossible, and the tribes, which are not stated to be Mahomedan, are Pagan, and often very savage ones.

My method of gathering Languages into groups has been throughout this essay geographical and not linguistic, subject to the provision that Families have been kept distinct. For instance, the Khamti Language, though obviously within the valley of Assam, has not been included within the Assam Group of Languages, because it is of the Tai

Family, and not the Tibeto-Burman. But here an ethnological difficulty meets me, and I am constrained to add an ethnological group collected from several islands to comprise the Languages of the Negritos and Alfurese, as obviously there is no affinity either in Language or race betwixt them and the members of any other group. I proceed to enumerate my ten groups: 1. SumatraMalacca. 2. Java. 3. Celebes. 4. Borneo. 5. Philippine. 6. Molucca. 7. Timour. 8. China. 9. Madagascar. 10. Alfurese-Negrito.

The Sumatra-Malacca Group comprises several islands, and the Peninsula of Malacca on the continent of Asia. There are eleven Languages in this group-1. Malay. 2. Achinese. 3. Batta. 4. Rejang. 5. Lampung. 6. Korinchi. 7. Nassau. 8. Nias. 9. Enganoes. 10. Ourung Binwuh of Sumatra. II. Ourung Binwuh of Malacca.

The Malay Language is spoken in portions of the island of Sumatra and of the Peninsula of Malacca, the islands of Banca, Billiton, the Rhio-Lingga Archipelago, the islands lying West of Sumatra, portions of the coasts of Borneo, of the Moluccas, and other islands. It is said to be spoken by ten and a half millions, but all calculations must be vague. The Bible has been translated both into Standard and Low Malay in both Arabic and Roman Characters.

The Malays had their ancestral home in the interior of Sumatra, the region of Menangkaba; thence they colonised the coasts of Sumatra, the Peninsula of Malacca, the coasts of Borneo, and made their influence felt far beyond as adventurous pirates and merchants. Their Language being simple, has readily adopted loan-words from the Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, English, Portuguese, Dutch, Javanese, Telugu, and Chinese Languages, avoiding allusion to the disputed main ingredients of primitive Malayan and the great Polynesian. In the Dialect spoken the Malay preponderates; in Literature the learned exotics. It is asserted, that the Malay of Singapore and of Queddah in