In collating the languages of the Archipelago,
the most ordinary observer must be struck with the
prodigious number of words in all the more civilized
languages, radically and essentially the same.
Such words are numerous in proportion to the civilization
of each tribe, and are few in proportion to
its rudeness ; until, among the utter savages, excluded
by circumstances from all intercourse with
the greater tribes, hardly a parallel word is to be
discovered.
The first point in an investigation into this
curious subject is, to determine the nature and
character of the class of words which is common
to the more civilized dialects ; but words
of this nature are so various and extensive, that
the selection becomes a matter of difficulty and
nicety. If, on thé one hand, words of this class
be less essential to each language than its own radical
stock, they are, on thé other, more necessary
to it, as the language of an improved community,
than the Sanskrit, commonly the medium of introducing
words more extrinsic and adventitious. I
would say, generally, that the class of words indicating
the existence of a great Polynesian language
are generally such as indicate the first and necessary
great steps in the progress of civilization ; arguing
thence, that civilization and improvement e-
manated from the people who spoke it. The following
may be enumerated as examples :—the
names of useful plants and grains, such as rice, 10
Indian corn, sugar cane, &e.; words connected with
the necessary arts, such as modes of husbandry,
weaving, the names of the useful metals, and of domestic
animals. The word for 'weaving, the shuttle,
the warp and the woof, are, as far as my in form a-
tion extends, the same in every language of the
Archipelago. Iron and gold are generally known
by the same terms ; but silver and copper, of foreign
introduction, are usually known by a Sanskrit
name. The domestic animals are commonly
known by one general name ; while the wild ones
of the same race, in those countries where they
are indigenous, have a distinct name in each separate
dialect.
Words connected with arts so simple and necessary
as to imply no invention, but which must at
once have occurred to the most untutored savages,
will be found distinct in each language. In such
arts, the use of the rattan and bamboo, the native
and abundant growth of every country of the
Archipelago, is perpetually implied, and these
plants, therefore, retain their primitive names in
every separate language,
One of the most striking examples of the influence
of a general, Polynesian language in the civilization
of the ruder tribes, may be adduced from
a collation of the numerals of the different languages.
u We are not to suppose that even the rudest
tribes required to be taught the rudiments of an
art which has its origin in the very nature of man