Page:A Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language with a Preliminary Dissertation- Dissertation and Grammar, in Two Volumes, Vol. I (IA dli.granth.52714).pdf/289

 a native word is "one," but this is also the case with several other rude languages. In other respects the system is tolerably perfect, with the exception that the Malagasi has rejected the affix blas or wâlas, which with the units represent the numbers between ten and twenty in the Malayan system. It clumsily uses in its stead a copulative conjunction and an article, saying, for example, "ten and the one," "ten and the two," for the sablas, "eleven," and duablas, "twelve," of the Malay. A similar practice is followed with the odd numbers between even tens from 20 to 100. Most of the numerals, it will be seen, belong to the Javanese and not to the Malay form of them. The two highest numbers, notwithstanding the discre- pancy of orthography, I have ventured to mark as Sanskrit. They certainly correspond in sense with the Malayan numerals, includ- ing even the mistake made by the Malayan nations in adopting the first of them. Alina seems to be formed from laksa, chiefly by substituting a nasal for the sequent ks, a sound which a native of Madagascar could not pronounce. The turning of kât͘i into hetsi is more obvious. Here the guttural is converted into an aspirate, as is frequently done with other Malay words, as kala, a scorpion," for example, into hala; and then, the Madagascar consonant ts is substituted for the palatal t of the Malayan, a letter which is not found in the Malagasi.

What benefit, then, it may be asked, did the natives of Ma- dagascar derive from their communication with the Malayan nations? I think a good deal must be inferred from the examina- tion now made. They certainly derived more advantage from the connexion than the Polynesian tribes from the same inter- course. The Malayan nations, probably, instructed them in the knowledge of making malleable iron. There is every appearance of their having introduced into the island the cultivation of rice and of the coconut. They either introduced or taught the culture of the yam. It is not improbable but that it was they who in- troduced the arts of weaving and sewing. But the Malayan nations introduced no domesticated animal, and taught the natives of Madagascar neither letters, law, or religion. If it be true that the Hovas, or ruling race of the island, are the mixed descendants of the Malayan immigrants, another benefit must