Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/68

 Malays, and, in consequence of this, more or less modified their habits of life, it was, again, these same people who attached them- selves to the manners and occupations of their fore fathers, and became in their turn the best qualified to trace out the various products of their own home-jungles. Wandering isolated in the forests, they had but few opportunities to hold any dealings with the Malays; and naturally kept more exclusively to their own lan- guage than those who trafficked with the Malays more frequent- ly, and lived in their neighbourhood. Thus it happened that in preserving the old language (going as it did hand in hand with primitive habits of life) they found a secret means of bringing to their homes a rich booty from the jungle. This superstition is believed in various parts of Johor, and will, for a long time, protect the ancient language from total extinction; and even if the signification of many words is wholly forgotten, yet will they still remain as the true rudiments of the language, and serve as a monument of the original race of the "Orang Utan."

I found it impossible to ascertain sufficiently the number and limitation of the different dialects. That more have existed is probable. I have arranged, somewhat arbitrarily, the following words in two dialects. I have only noted down (as said before) those words which appeared to me not Malay.