Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/66

 DIALECTS OF THE MELANESIAN TRIBES IN THE MALAY PENINSULA.

Read at a Meeting of the Society, held on the 6th May, 1878.

[Extract from Letter I.]

"My desire to know something about the inhabitants of the interior of the Malay Peninsula, and to ascertain their position in relation to Anthropology, induced me to undertake this journey into the Peninsula. It also appeared to me of importance not to delay it, for I know from my own experience that the solution of this problem will become more difficult as time elapses, and we shall only reach what is likely to prove less and less reliable as a point d'appui for satisfactory conclusions. For example, the original language of the Orang Utan of Johor, is constantly becoming more and more displaced by Malay. Not only is it disappearing year by year, but the death of every old man (acquainted to some extent with the language of his forefathers) creates a fresh gap never to be filled up.

This decline of the tongue, which precedes the gradual modification of the anatomical type, induced me to collect what does remain very carefully, in order to secure it before its complete destruction.

During my excursion in the Peninsula whenever I came across a number of men I gathered them round me, and listening attentively to them I took down as many words as possible that were not Malay. In order to collect the following scanty vocabulary I always held quite a "Council," for only a few old