Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/71

 before the influx of Malaydom into the mountains and forests of the Peninsula, and have thus kept themselves free from intermix- ture, still retaining their own language.

I had the good fortune to find these people in many other places, and I have not failed during my Anthropological studies to collect as many words as possible of their dialects, although a naturalist cau do little with the materials of language. I undertook this small task (which nevertheless required no small amount of patience and attention) for the reason named in my first letter; viz, that these languages are disappearing, partly because the tribes intermingle with other races and partly because they die out. Although I cau draw no conclusious as to the various relations of these dialects to other Papuan tongues, this small collection has nevertheless given me some interesting and not unimportant facts.

Firstly as to the connection between the various tribes of the Orang Sakai, living quite cut off from one another, in Pahang, Kelantan and Singora.

Secondly, and what astonished me stilstill [sic] more, as to the relation in point of language between the very mixed and distant-dwelling Orang-Utan of Jobor, with the Orang-Sakai in the north of the Peninsula.

It is undoubtedly an interesting result to have ascertained that these tribes, isolated and ignorant of each other, are throughout the whole peninsula, from Johor to Ligor (South of Siam) thus closely connected in speech. This eircumstance gives me a fresh conviction that my opinion expressed in the beginning of this year and before my second journey, is correct, viz: that the Orang-Utan of Johor, notwithstanding their great intermixture, undoubtedly show traces of a Melanesian blood. I send you herewith a small Comparative Vocabulary of the dialects collected. I hope the result I have arrived at will coincide with your opinion upon the origin of the language of the Orang-Utan of Johor.