TABLE EXHIBITING AN ESTIMATE OF THE EXPENSE AND PRODUCE IN 12 YEARS OF 100 ÚRLONGS PLANTED WITH PEPper.

1 [See also (J. Anderson) "Relations of the Government of Prince of Wales Island," &c. (1824), pp. 10 ff. 29, 52; C. L. Blume, "Monographie der OostIndische pepersoorten," in "Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch genootschap," vol. xi. p. 137 ff.; G. J. Filet, "Plantkundig Woordenboek," No. 4824-33; A. H. Bisschop Grevelink, "Planten van Nederlandsch Indië (1883), pp. 428-39; K. W. van Gorkom, "De Indische Cultures (1880), vol. ii. pp. 517-525; F. Jagor, "Singapore" (1866), pp. 62-64.]

XII.

ON THE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE

OF THE INDO-CHINESE NATIONS.

By J. LEYDEN, M.D.

["Asiatic Researches," vol. x. (1808), pp. 158-289.]

THE inhabitants of the regions which lie between India and China, and the greater part of the islanders of the Eastern Sea, though divided into numerous tribes, and equally dissimilar in their languages and manners, may yet with propriety be characterized by the term Indo-Chinese. Situated between India and China, each of which proudly styles itself the most ancient among the nations of the earth, they have contented themselves with more modest claims to antiquity, and professed to borrow from one or other of their neighbours the principal features of their religion, laws and manners. The different periods, however, at which these were adopted in different countries, the various degrees of civilization, and the pre-existing habits on which they were engrafted, have produced a diversity of national characteristics, by which they are not only distinguished from the Indian and Chinese nations, but also from one another, notwithstanding their common mixed origin.

The intercourse of Europeans with the Indo-Chinese nations, though for the first two centuries after the arrival of the Portuguese in the East scarcely inferior to that which was carried on with India or China, was not of such a kind as to furnish us with a very accurate or extensive knowledge of their laws, manners, or literature, and for more than a century it has been rather declining than increasing. Neither, since our late rapid acquisitions in Indian languages and literature, have we obtained any important accessions to our information in this quarter, though both political and literary reasons seem to require them.

The materials of this imperfect sketch were chiefly collected in the course of a voyage which the state of my health caused me to take to the Eastern Isles in 1805, during which I resided some time at Penang, and visited Achi, with some other places on the coast of Sumatra and the Malayan Peninsula. Cultivating an intercourse with a variety of individuals of different Eastern tribes, I availed myself of the facilities which the situation presented, to correct the vague ideas which I had previously entertained con

cerning their languages, literature, and the filiation of their tribes. Though my information was chiefly collected from native sources, yet it sometimes happened that these were not exactly such as I should have preferred, had better been attainable; and sometimes too, from the indifferent state of my health and other causes, I was not able to avail myself of these sources of information to the extent I could have wished. Feeling myself equally embarrassed by the extent of the subject, the difficulty of the research, and, perhaps I may add in some instances, by the novelty of the investigation, I should have hesitated to lay before the Asiatic Society these imperfect results, had I had any immediate prospect of pursuing the discussion. I do not, however, despair of being able, at no very distant period, to offer some more minute and correct views of several of the subjects treated here in a cursory manner; and at all events I trust this attempt to introduce order and arrangement into a subject at once so extensive and intricate, and to disentangle it from a degree of confusion which seemed almost inextricable, may not be altogether without its use, but may, even where I have failed, serve to point out the proper method of investigation.

The Indo-Chinese nations, at a very early period, seem to have generally embraced the system of Buddha. From the want of original historical documents, we can only conjecture the period at which this event took place in the different regions over which it has extended; but at present it is chiefly confined to the continent. The coasts of the Malayan Pensinula and the greater part of the Eastern Isles are chiefly occupied by the Moslems. The original inhabitants, therefore, being for the most part confined to the interior of these islands, are still very imperfectly known to Europeans, so that it is often impossible to determine whether their religious institutions are most connected with the tenets of Brahma or Buddha, and often to reduce them to any known system. From the names and epithets, however, of some of their deities, even as given in the vulgar and incurious manner of common navigators, it is often easy to discover their connection with the grand features of Hindu superstition; but our notices concerning them are generally too scanty, and our narratives too erroneous, to enable us to classify them with absolute certainty. Such is the difference of Oriental and European manners that the simplest narrator is apt to mingle conjecture with observation, while an absurd affectation of superior sagacity and a disdain of vulgar superstitions and prejudices, often prevent those who have had the opportunity of observation from detailing the most useful pieces of information, or induce them to reject, as anile and useless fables, the mythological narratives which would enable us to determine the origin of a nation or a tribe.

With the exception of the Malays, and perhaps some rude tribes

of mountaineers, the nations who occupy the countries which extend from India to China, profess only one religion, and adhere almost solely to the system of Buddha. In so vast an extent of country some diversity of local institutions is always to be expected; but the spirit of the system and its influence on the manners of the people, in the same state of civilization, is essentially the same from Chatigan to China. This system in its grand features identifies itself with that which prevails in Nepal, Bután, and Tibét, and has extended itself over the immense regions of Chin, Cham, and Japuén, or China, Tartary, and Japan. Though it does not appear that all the nations who occupy this prodigious extent of territory employ the same learned language in the preservation of their sacred books and religious tracts, yet this is the case with the Indo-Chinese nations, who, with the Singhalese, or inhabitants of Ceylon, uniformly employ the Bali or Pali, in the sacred compositions of the Buddhist sect. This language does not exist as a vernacular tongue, but is the language of religion, learning, and science, and appears to have exerted an influence over the vernacular languages of the Indo-Chinese nations, similar to that which the Sanscrit has exhibited among the popular languages of Hindustan and Dekhin.

The Malayan language, and the more original languages of the Eastern Isles, seem in their original formation to have been polysyllabic, like Sanscrit, Pali, and the spoken dialects of India. The modifications which these languages have received from a foreign source, seem for the most part to have been effected rather by the immediate agency of Sanscrit than of Pali, though the influence of this latter is not to be entirely excluded. But several of them have been a second time modified, by the introduction of Arabic, as the language of religion and learning, after the conversion of several of these tribes to the Mahummedan faith.

The vernacular Indo-Chinese languages on the continent seem all to be, in their original structure, either purely monosyllabic, like the spoken languages of China, or they incline so much to this class, that it may be strongly suspected that the few original polysyllables which they contain have either been immediately derived from the Pali, or formed of coalescing monosyllables. These languages are all prodigiously varied by accentuation, like the spoken languages of China, and every foreign modification which they have received seems to have been immediately derived from the Pali.

In the paucity of existing monuments relative to the IndoChinese nations, no better method presented itself, either for classing their tribes or laying a foundation for historical researches, than by examining the mutual relation of the several languages which are current among them. This method, when applied on

an extensive scale, is always the surest clue for developing the origin of a nation, and indicating the revolutions to which it may have been subjected, either by foreign conquest or colonization. After the relations of the language itself, the ancient monuments and compositions preserved in it claim our regard; and I have therefore noted, under their respective heads, such as have come to my knowledge; premising that my opportunities of procuring this species of information have been very unfavourable, and of examining them, very limited.

The Indo-Chinese languages may be considered in the following order :

1

The Learned Language.

14. Pali.

I. Malayu-The Malayu language, so pronounced in the Malaya Peninsula, but by Europeans generally denominated Malay, is used by the numerous and enterprising nation of that name, who are termed Khék by the Siamese, and Măsú by the Barmas. This language, which from its sweetness has been termed the Italian, and from its widely extended use the Hindustani of the East, though it coincides with the monosyllabic languages in its general construction and analogies, is properly polysyllabic in its form. Having spread itself over a great extent of country, not only in the Malaya Peninsula, but far among the Eastern Isles, and having been propagated by a race more skilled in arms than in letters, it has branched out into almost as many dialects as states, by mixing in different proportions with the native languages of the aboriginal races. This is the circumstance which renders the investigation of the origin and relations of the Malayu language a matter of difficulty, as it becomes necessary to examine the history of the nation, as well as the structure and composition of the language itself. Though used by a nation of comparatively late origin, at least with respect to the principal

1 [The Burmese word is Pashú, which is also used in Karen along with Pathé. In both languages Pathi is the common term for a Mohammedan. The Siamese word Khêk (Khik in Shan), is a general term for a stranger, a foreigner, and requires the addition of the determinant Maláyu to convey the meaning "a Malay."]