Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/59

 OF THE MALAYS. 45 sions of the great Polynesian language are very extensive, and have evidently displaced many pri- mitive words which must have existed in the lan- guage of the rudest savage, such, for example, as the words sky, moon, mountain, white, black, hand, eye, &c. The Sanskrit enters into the Malay in much smaller proportions than into any dialect of the Java'- nese, even the most popular, and exists also in less purity. The most usual class of words supplied by the Sanskrit are mythological terms, and words ex- pressing the most early class of abstract nouns, such as understanding, prudence, cause, time, &c. The Malayan language, from being written in the Arabic character, and from the more thorough adoption by the people who speak it, than by any other tribe, of the law and religion of Mahomed, has admitted the largest portion of Arabic. Mr Mars- den's account of the introduction of Arabic into this language is equally sensible and correct, and deserves to be quoted at length. *' The effects produced," says he, " by the introduction of this re- ligion," (the Mahomedan,) " were similar to those which took place in Persia, and many other coun- tries where it has prevailed. The use of the Ara- bic character superseded that of the ancient mode of writing, and the language became exposed to an inundation of new terms, for the most part theo- logical, metaphysical, legal, and ceremonial, the