Part 19

Now comes the notice of a text which always commands the attention of the ethnological philologue, when he is engaged upon the Angle period of our island's history. It refers to the middle of the eighth century, the era of the Venerable Beda, from whose writings it is taken. I give it _in extenso_. It runs "Hæc in presenti, juxta numerum librorum quibus lex divina scripta est, quinque gentium linguis, unam eandemque summæ veritatis et veræ sublimitatis scientiam scrutatur et confitetur; Anglorum, videlicet, Brittonum, Scottorum, Pictorum et Latinorum quæ meditatione scripturarum, cæteris omnibus est facta communis".[15]

[Footnote 15: _Hist. Eccl. l. 1. c. 1._]

That the Latin here is the Latin of Ecclesiastical, rather than Imperial, Rome, the Latin of the Scriptures rather than classical writers, the Latin of a written book rather than a Lingua Rustica, is implied by the context.

Should this, however, be doubted, the following passage, which makes the languages of Britain only _four_, is conclusive--"Omnes nationes et provincias Brittanniæ, quæ in _quatuor_ linguas, id est Brittonum, Pictorum, Scottorum et Anglorum divisæ sunt, in ditione accepit."[16]

[Footnote 16: _Eccl. Hist._ iii, 6.]

It is the first of these two statements of Beda's that the following extract from Wintoun is founded on.

_Cronykil_, I. xiii, 39.

Of Langagis in Bretayne sere I fynd that sum tym fyf thare were: Of Brettys fyrst, and Inglis syne, Peycht, and Scot, and syne Latyne. Bot, of the Peychtis, is ferly, That ar wndon sá hályly, That nowthir remanande ar Language, Næ' succession of Lynage: Swá of thare antiqwytè Is lyk bot fabyl for to be.

But the Latin of the scriptures may have been the Latin of common life as well. Scarcely. The change from the written to the spoken language was too great for this. What the latter would have been we can infer. It would have been something like the following "Pro Deo amur et pro Xristian poblo et nostro commun salvament d'ist di en avant, in quant Deus savir et poder me dunat, si salvarai eo cist meon fradre Karlo, et in ajudha et in cadhuna cosa, si com om per dreit son fradre salvar dist, in o quid il me altresi fazet: et ab Ludher nul plaid nunquam prindrai uni, meon vol, cist meon fradre Karle in damno sit."

This is the oath of the Emperors Karl and Ludwig, sons of Charlemagne, as it was sworn by the former in A. D. 842. It is later in date than the time of Beda by about a century; being in the Lingua Rustica of France. Nevertheless, it is a fair specimen of the difference between the spoken languages of the countries that had once been Roman Provinces and the written Latin. Indeed, it was not Latin, but Romance; and, in like manner, any vernacular form of speech, used in Britain but of Roman origin, would have been Romance also.

The conclusion which the present notice suggests is--

That the testimony of authors tells neither way.

That the presumptions in favour of the Latin which are raised by the cases of Gaul, Spain, Rhætia, and Dacia, are anything but conclusive.

That the inferences from the earliest as well as the latest data as to the condition of _English_ Britain, the inferences from the Angle conquest, and the inferences from the present language of Wales, are decidedly against the Latin.

I may, perhaps, be allowed to conclude by a reference to a paper already alluded to, as having been laid before the present Society, by Mr. Wright. This is to the effect, that the Latin reigned paramount not only in England, but in Wales also, under the Roman dominion; the present Welsh being of recent introduction from Armorica.

That the population was heterogeneous is certain, the Roman Legionaries being, to a great extent, other than Roman. It is also certain that there was, within the island, at an early period, no inconsiderable amount of Teutonic blood. It is certain, too, that the name _Briton_ had different applications at different times.

If so, the difference between Mr. Wright and myself, in respect to the homogeneousness or heterogeneousness of the Britannic population, is only a matter of degree.

In respect to the particular fact, as to whether the British or Latin language was the vernacular form of speech, we differ more decidedly. That the British was unwritten and uncultivated is true; so that the exclusive use of the Latin for inscriptions is only what we expect. The negative fact that no British name has been found inscribed, I by no means undervalue.

The _preponderance_, however, of a Non-British population, and the use of the Latin as the _vernacular_ language, are doctrines, which the few undoubted facts of our early history impugn rather than verify.

The main difficulty which Mr. Wright's hypothesis meets--and it _does_ meet it--lies in the fact of the similarity between the Welsh and Armorican being too great for anything but a comparatively recent separation to account for. Nevertheless, even this portion of what may be called the Armorican hypothesis, is by no means incompatible with the doctrine of the present paper. The Celtic of Armorica may as easily have displaced the _older_ Celtic of Britain (from which, by hypothesis, it notably differed) as it is supposed to have displaced the Latin.

I do not imagine this to have been the case; indeed I can see reasons against it, arising out of the application of Mr. Wright's own line of criticism.

I think it by no means unlikely that the argument which gives us the annihilation of the British of the British Isles, may also give us that of the Gallic of Gaul. Why should Armorica have been more Celtic than Wales? Yet, if it were not so, whence came the Armorican of Wales? I throw out these objections for the sake of stimulating criticism, rather than with the view of settling a by no means easy question.

KELÆNONESIA.

The dates of the four papers on this part of the world shew that the first preceded the earliest of the other three by as much as four years; a fact that must be borne in mind when the philological ethnography of New Guinea and the islands to the south and east of it is under notice. The vocabularies of each of the authors illustrated in papers 2 and. 3, more than doubled our previous data--Jukes' illustrating the language of islands between New Guinea and Australia, Macgillivray's those of the Louisiade Archipelago.

That there was a hypothesis at the bottom of No. 1 is evident. Neither is there much doubt as to the fact of that hypothesis being wrong.

I held in 1843 that, all over Oceania, there was an older population of ruder manners, and darker colour than the Malays, the proper Polynesians, and the populations allied to them; that, in proportion as these latter overspread the several islands of their present occupancy the aborigines were driven towards the interior; that in Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea &c. the original black race remained unmolested.

This view led to two presumptions;--both inaccurate;

1. That the ruder tribes were, _as such_, likely to be Negrito;

2. That the Negrito tongues would be allied to each other.

The view, held by me now, will be given in a future notice.

ON THE NEGRITO LANGUAGES.

READ BEFORE THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

FEBRUARY 10, 1843.

By the term Negrito is meant those tribes of the Asiatic and Australian islands, who, in one or more of their physical characters, depart from the type of the nations in their neighbourhood and approach that of the African. The word is more comprehensive than Arafura, Andaman, or Papuan, and less comprehensive than Negro.

Of the Negrito localities the most western are--

_The Andaman Islands._--A Vocabulary, collected by Lieutenant R. H. Colebrooke, appears in the Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 410. The native name is Mineopie. An historical notice of them appears as early as the ninth century, in the Travels of the Two Arabians, translated by Renaudot.

_The Nicobar and Carnicobar Islands._--In the largest of these it is stated that, in the interior, blacks are to be found. The current assertion concerning the language of the rest of these islands is, that the Carnicobar is Peguan, and the Nicobar Malay.--Asiatic Researches, iii. 303.

_Malacca._--The Samangs of the interior are Negrito. For the single Vocabulary of their language, see Crawfurd's Indian Archipelago, or Klaproth's Nouveau Journal Asiatique, xii. 239, where Crawfurd's Vocabulary is reprinted without acknowledgement. The Orang Benua are _not_ Negrito; neither are the Jokong Negrito. For thirty words in the latter language, see Thomas Raffles in Asiatic Researches, xii. 109. In this list twelve words are shown by Raffles to be Malay, and Humboldt states the same of two more. The other sixteen may or may not be of Negrito origin. The Samangs are the Orang Udai.--Humboldt, _Über die Kawi-Sprache_.

_Sumatra._--The Battas of Sumatra are Malay, not Negrito (Marsden's Sumatra, p. 203, and Rienzi's Oceanie, vol. i.). The Sumatran of Parkinson's Journal (p. 198) is the Arabic of Acheen. The true Negritos of Sumatra seem to be,

1. The _Orang Cooboo_.--These are stated to be pretty numerous between Palembang and Jambee.--Marsden's Sumatra, p. 35.

2. _The Orang Googoo_,--who are described by the Sumatrans of Laboon as being more Orang Utang than man.--Marsden's Sumatra, p. 35. Specimens of the Orang Googoo (Gougon) Rienzi states to have seen. He says that they come from Palembang and Menangcaboo, and he calls them Pithecomorphi.

For an historical notice as early as 960 A. D., probably referring to the Blacks of Sumatra, see Klaproth in Nouveau Journal Asiatique, xii. 239.

_Borneo._--The Biajuk of Borneo is not Negrito but Malay (Crawfurd's Indian Archipelago); neither are the Dyacks Negrito. The statement of Marsden and Leyden is, that the Dyacks are _whiter_ than the rest of the natives of Borneo; and the remark of more than one voyager is, that the Dyacks of Borneo look like South Sea Islanders in the midst of a darker population. Are the Marut, Idongs, Tidongs, or Tirungs of the north of Borneo Negrito? In Rienzi's Oceanie there is a Borneo Vocabulary which is headed Dyack, Marut and Idaan, the three terms being treated as synonyms. Of this Vocabulary all the words are Malay. That there are Negritos in Borneo is most probable, but of their language we possess but one word, _apün_, father[17] (and that more than doubtful); whilst of their name we know nothing; and in respect to their locality, we have only the statement of Kollf, that in the north of Borneo Blacks are to be found on the Keeneebaloo mountain; a statement, however, slightly modified by the fact of his calling them Idaans or Maruts (see Earl's translation of the Voyage of the Doorga, p. 417). Compare the name Idaan in Borneo, with the name Orang Udai, applied to certain rude tribes in Malacca.

[Footnote 17: Mithr. i. 598.]

_The Sooloo Islands._--There are positive statements that the Sooloos contain Negritos. They also contain Malays; as may be seen in a Sooloo vocabulary in Rienzi's Oceanie, vol. i.

_The Manillas._--The Isola de Negros testifies its population by its name. Hervas calls it the Papua of the Philippines. In Panay are the blackest of the Philippine Negritos. Rienzi would term them Melanopygmæi. In Bohol, Leyté and Samar, there are Negritos (Lafond Lurcy, ii. 182.); also in Cayagan (Lafond Lurcy, ii. 182.); also in Capul or Abac (Hervas). For the two main islands there are,--1st. In Mindanao, two wild tribes inhabiting the interior, the Bantschilen and the Hillunas. The proof of these two tribes being Negrito is the strongest for the Hillunas. They are the Negros del Monte of the Spaniards (Hervas, Catalogo delle Lingue; Adelung, i. 601). Near Marivèles are the Igorots or Ætas (Agtas of Hervas); and of these we have late and positive evidence, first to the fact of their being Negrito, and next to the difference of their language from the Tagal.--(Lafond Lurcy.) Secondly, in Luçon, the Zambalen of Adelung are Negrito. These are the Blacks of Pampango. The Blacks inhabiting the other parts of the island are called Ygelots; and Mount St. Mathew, near Manilla, is one of their well-known localities, and the Illoco mountains another. Here they were visited by Lafond Lurcy. They were all alike, and all under four feet six (French measure). Italonen, Calingas, and Maitim are the names under which the Philippine Blacks have been generally described. Agta and Maitim are said to be indigenous appellations.--Hervas.

_Formosa._--The Formosan language is Malay. In the interior, however, are, according to the Chinese accounts,--1, the Thoufan; 2, the Kia-lao; 3, the Chan tchaó chan; 4, the Lang Khiao,--aboriginal tribes with Negrito characters, each speaking a peculiar dialect.--Klaproth, Recherches Asiatiques.

_The Loochoo Islands._--The current Loochoo language is Japanese (Klaproth, Rech. Asiat.). But besides this, Adelung mentions from Père Gaubil and Gosier, that three other languages are spoken in the interior, neither Japanese nor Chinese; and we are now, perhaps, justified in considering that, in these quarters, the fact of a language being aboriginal, is _primâ facie_ evidence of its being Negrito.

_Java._--Here the evidence of an aboriginal population at all is equivocal, and that of Negrito aborigines wholly absent. For the Kalangs, see Raffles's History of Java. The dark complexions on the island Bali show the darkness, not of the Negrito, but of the Hindoo; such at least is the view of Raffles opposed to that of Adelung (Mith. i.). There is no notice of Blacks in Ende (otherwise Floris), in Sumbawa, or in Sandalwood Island.

_Savoo._--If the Savoo of modern geographers be the Pulo Sabatu of Dampier, then there were, in Dampier's time, Blacks in Savoo. The Savoo of Parkinson's Journal is Malay.

_Timor._--In this island Negritos were indicated by Peron. Freycinet describes them. Lafond Lurcy had a Timor black as a slave. Of their language he gives four words:--_manouc_, bird; _vavi_, woman; _lima_, five; _ampou_, ten. All these are Malay.

_Ombay._--In Freycinet's Voyage the natives of Ombay are described as having olive-black complexions, flattened noses, thick lips, and long black hair. In Arago[18] we find a short vocabulary, of which a few words are Malay, whilst the rest are unlike anything either in the neighbouring language of Timor (at least as known by Raffles's specimens), or in any other language known to the author. Upon what grounds, unless it be their cannibalism, the Ombaians have been classed with the New Zealanders, is unknown. The evidence is certainly not taken from their language.

[Footnote 18: Vide Note A.]

Between Timor and New Guinea we collect, either from positive statements or by inference, that, pure or mixed, there are Negritos in at least the following islands:--1, Wetta; 2, Kissa?; 3, Serwatty?; 4, Lette?; 5, Moa?; 6, Roma?; 7, Damma; 8, Lakor?; 9, Luan; 10, Sermatta; 11, Baba; 12, Daai; 13, Serua; 14, the Eastern Arroos; 15, Borassi. (Kollf's Voy.; Earl's Translation.)

The language of the important island of Timor-Laut is Malay. From a conversation with the sailor Forbes, who was on the island for sixteen years, the author learned that there are in Timor-Laut plenty of black slaves, but no black aborigines.

_Celebes._--In the centre of Celebes and in the north there are Negritos: the inhabitants call them Turajas, and also Arafuras: they speak a simple dialect and pass for aborigines. (Raffles, History of Java.) Of this language we have no specimen. Gaimard's Menada is the Menadu of Sir Stamford Raffles, and Raffles's Menadu is Malay. (Voyage de l'Astrolabe, Philologie, ii. 191.) The remark made by the collector of this Menadu Vocabulary was, that those who spoke it were _whiter_ than the true Bugis, and that they looked like South-Sea Islanders, a fact of value in a theory of the Dyacks, but of no value in the enumeration of the Negritos.

_Bourou_, _Gammen_, _Salawatty_, _Battenta_.--For each of these islands we have positive statements as to the existence of Negritos.

_Gilolo._--In Lesson's Natural History the inhabitants of Gilolo are classed with those of Gammen, Battenta, &c., as Negritos. The same is the case in the Mithridates, where the inference is, that in all the Moluccas, with the exception of Amboyna and Ternati, Negritos are to be found in the interior. For Guebé see the sequel.

_The Teetees._--The Teetee Islands of Meares, the Jauts or Aeauw of the Mithridates, sixteen in number, are Negrito. (Meares, Voyage, Adelung.)

_Oby._--According to Adelung this island is Negrito.

The object of what has gone before is less to state where Negritos are to be found than where they are to be looked for. Hence many of the above notices indicate the probable rather than the actual presence of them; and those statements concerning the Molucca localities that are taken from systematic books (and as such at secondhand) are all subject to one exception, viz. the fact that the tribes described as Arafura, although in current language Negrito, are not necessarily so. An instance of this has been seen in the so-called Arafura of Menadu. The same applies to the so-called Arafura of Ceram, (Handboek der Land-en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indië. P. P. Roorda van Eysinga. Amsterdam 1841; indicated by Mr. Garnett,) which is Malay. In the quarters about to be given in detail the evidence is less exceptionable.

_New Guinea._--Here there is little except Negritos; and here we meet with the name _Papua_. What is said of the Papuas must be said with caution. Physical conformation being the evidence, there are in New Guinea two nations, if not more than two:--1. Those of the North, with curly hair, which are subdivided into the pure Papuas, and the Papuas that are looked upon as a cross with the Malay (Quoy, Gaimard and Lesson in the French Voyages). 2. Those of the South, with lank hair, called by the French naturalists Arafuras. The author was unable to determine who were meant by the Alfakis of Quoy (Durville's Voyage, iv. 746). To the language of these Alfakis are possibly referable the ten words of Lesson. These are the numerals, and, they are as might be expected, Malay. For the South of New Guinea we have not so much as a single vocabulary or a single word.

_Waigioo._--The Waigioo and New Guinea have been frequently confounded; we have therefore deferred speaking of the latter until we could also deal with the former. Without going into the conflicting evidence, we may state that there are two Vocabularies wherein _arm_ is _kapiani_, and three wherein _arm_ is _bramine_. Of the first division we have--1st, the Vocabularies of the Uranie and Physicienne Corvettes, under Freycinet, in 1817, 1818, 1819, as given in Arago's (the draughtsman's) Narrative, p. 275, English translation; and 2ndly, the Undetermined Vocabulary of Dentrecasteaux. Dentrecasteaux, whilst at Boni in Waigioo, saw some strangers who spoke a language very different from the inhabitants of that island; he considered that they came from New Guinea. Now this language is the Waigioo of Arago[19]; whilst the Waigioo of Dentrecasteaux is the Papua of Arago. Among the Vocabularies of the second class we have Gaimard's Rawak Vocabulary, stated especially (Voyage de l'Astrolabe, Philologie, vol. ii. p. 153.) to have been collected at Rawak in Waigioo in 1818: here _arm_ is _bramine_. Now a vocabulary (that will soon be mentioned) of the New Guinea Papuan of Port Dorey was collected during the expedition of the Astrolabe by the same naturalist, M. Gaimard. With this vocabulary Gaimard's Rawak coincides, rather than with Arago's Waigioo and Dentrecasteaux's Undetermined Vocabulary. This makes the third vocabulary for these islands. The fourth is Gaimard's Port Dorey Vocabulary (Voyage de l'Astrolabe, Philologie, ii. 146.). The fifth, Dentrecasteaux's (or La Billardière) Waigioo Vocabulary. This represents the same language as those last-mentioned, inasmuch as in it _arm_ is _bramine_ not _kapiani_. The sixth vocabulary is the Utanata, from Dutch authorities (vide Trans. Geogr. Soc). This akin to the Lobo Vocabulary.--Ibid. The next is Forest's Vocabulary. See Forest's Voyage to New Guinea. Such are the data for New Guinea and Waigioo. Dalrymple's Vocabulary will be noticed in the sequel.

[Footnote 19: See Note B.]

_Guebé._--The Guebé Vocabulary of the Astrolabe (Philologie, ii. 157) is the Guebé of Freycinet's Voyage in 1818, when it was collected by Gaimard, The Guebé of Arago (under Freycinet) also approaches the Guebé of Gaimard. According to D. Durville the Guebé is Papuan. The author however considers it Malay, though there was some resemblance to the Papuan, inasmuch as many Malay terms were common to both these dialects.

From New Guinea westward and southward the Negritos are no longer isolated. The following are Negrito Islands, or Negrito Archipelagos:--

1. New Britain; 2. New Hanover; 3. New Ireland; 4. Solomon's Islands; 5. Queen Charlotte's Archipelago; 6. Louisiade Archipelago; 7. Isles of Bougainville; 8. Bouka; 9. New Georgia; 10. Admirality Isles,--York, Sandwich, Portland; 11. Santa Cruz Archipelago; 12. Arsacides; 13. Espiritu Santo, or New Hebrides,--Mallicollo, Erromango, Tanna, Erronan, Annatom; 14. New Caledonia; 15. Warouka, Bligh's and Banks's Island.--Astrolabe. The Ticopian is not Negrito but Polynesian.--Voyage de l'Astrolabe.

_Fiji Islands._--In the Fiji Islands the physical character of the natives is half Negrito and half Polynesian. Here is the Negrito limit to the east; that is, of Negrito tribes as existing at the present moment.

The languages of the list just given are known to us through the following Vocabularies.

_New Ireland_ &c.--Gaimard's Carteret Harbour Vocabulary.--Voyage de l'Astrolabe, Philologie, ii. 143.

Durville's Port Praslin Vocabulary, incorporated with Gaimard's Carteret Bay Vocabulary.--Ibid.

Dalrymple's so-called New Guinea Vocabulary. The word _so-called_ was used because, unless there were natives of New Ireland on the coast of New Guinea, Dalrymple's Vocabulary is a representative of the Papuan. It coincides with those of Durville and Gaimard from New Ireland: it was collected by Schouten and Le Maire. It is also the New Guinea of De Brosses.

Vocabularies of four small islands are given by Dalrymple and De Brosses, viz. of Moses Island, Moa, Hoorn Island, and Cocos Island. These are the vocabularies of Reland (Diss. xi.), referred to by Adelung.

_Manicolo._--In Queen Charlotte's Archipelago, or perhaps among the Solomon Islands, lies an island in name resembling one of the New Hebrides. Durville called it Vanikoro, but Captain Dillon assures me that the true name is Manicolo. Of the language spoken here we have a vocabulary collected by Gaimard in three dialects; the Vanikoro, the Tanema, and the Taneanou. Voyage de l'Astrolabe, Philologie, ii. 164.

_Mallicollo._--Cook's Island is Mallicollo. A glossary occurs in Cook's Voyages.

_Tanna._--A single vocabulary in Cook's Voyages.

_New Caledonia._--A short vocabulary in Cook. A longer one in Dentrecasteaux and La Billardière.

Of the Fiji we have a few words by Cook, a long vocabulary by Gaimard (Astrol. Phil. ii. 136), Port regulations, and MS. Scripture translations, which afford us full and sufficient samples of the language. To deal with this as Negrito the Polynesian element must be eliminated.

In the way of Ethnography Madagascar is Asiatic; since its language, as has been known since the time of Reland, is Malay. For this island the evidence of physical character gives two or more races, but the evidence of language only one.