"tributes minium at pleasure; and having repeated "the Sanculpa, proceeds into the flames: there embracing the corpse, she abandons herself to the fire, calling Satya! Satya! Satya!"

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The by-standers throw on butter and wood: for this, they are taught, that they acquire merit exceeding ten millions fold, the merit of an Aswamedha, or other great sacrifice. Even those who join the procession from the house of the deceased to the funeral pile, for every step are rewarded as for an Aswamedha. Such indulgences are promised by grave authors: they are quoted in this place only as they seem to authorise an inference, that happily the martyrs of this superstition have never been numerous. It is certain that the instances of the widow's sacrifices are now rare: on this it is only necessary to appeal to the recollection of every person residing in India, how few instances have actually occurred within his knowledge. And, had they ever been frequent, superstition would hardly have promised its indulgences to spectators.

ON THE TRACES

OF THE

HINDU LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Extant amongst the Malays.

BY WILLIAM MARSDEN, ESQ.

THE Sanscrit, or ancient language of the Hindus, is a subject so interesting in itself, that every discovery which contributes to throw light upon its history or to mark its extent, carries with it a degree of importance. The proofs of its influence in the northern countries of Assam, Nepal, Booten, and Tibet, as well as in the southern parts of the peninsula of India,' are to be found in the works of the Missionaries and the Researches of this Society; but the progress it made in early times, amongst the inhabitants of the eastern islands and countries possessed by the Malays, has not, I believe, been pointed out by any writer. My acquaintance with the language of the latter people, together with some attention paid to the dialects of India in generál, have enabled me to observe, that the Malayan is indebted to the Sanscrit for a considerable number of its terms. I have also satisfied myself, that the intercourse by which this communication was effected, must have taken place in times anterior, probably by many centuries,

to the conversion of these people to the Mohammedan religion. The language, it is true, abounds at present with Arabic words, which their writers affect to introduce, because this display of literary skill is, at the same time a proof of their religious knowledge; but they are generally legal or metaphysical terms, borrowed from the Koran and its commentaries; are never expressive of simple ideas, have not been incorporated into the language (a few excepted) and are rarely made use of in conversation. The Hindu words, on the contrary, are such as the progress of civilization must soon have rendered necessary, being frequently expressive of the feelings of the mind, or denoting those ordinary modes of thought which result from the social habits of mankind, or from the evils that tend to interrupt them. It is not however to be understood, that the affinity between these languages is radical, or that the names for the common objects of sense are borrowed from the Sanscrit. The Malayan is a branch or dialect of the widely extended language prevailing throughout the island's of the Archipelago, to which it gives name (*); and those of the South Sea; comprehending between Madagascar on the one side, and Easter Island on the other, both inclusive, the space of full two hundred degrees of longitude. This consideration alone is sufficient to give it claim to the highest degree of antiquity, and to originality, as far as that term can be applied. The various dialects of this speech, though they have a wonderful accordance in many essential properties, have experienced those changes which separation, time, and accident produce; and in respect to the purposes of intercourse, may be classed into several languages, differing consider

* The Malay-Archipelago may be understood to comprehend the Sunda, Phillippine, and Molucca islands, in the maritime parts of which the Malayan is used as a lingua franca,

ably from each other.. The marks of cultivation by which the Malayan is distinguished from his ruder neighbours, are to be attributed, in my opinion, to the effects of an early connexion that must have subsisted between the inhabitants of this eastern peninsula and those of the continent of India; but what the nature and circumstances of this connexion may have been, it is not easy to determine. A spirit of foreign conquest, and still more, a zeal for the propagation of their religious tenets, appear incompatible with the genius of the Hindu system, excepting amongst the disciples of Bhood; but I have never discovered in the Malayan customs or opinions any traces of the peculiar institutions of that extraordinary sect,

A commercial intercourse has always subsisted between the manufacturing countries of India and the marts for the produce of the Spice-islands, such as Johor, Sinapoora and Malacca; and when the Portuguese, at the commencement of the sixteenth century, first visited these places, they mention with surprise the concourse of foreign vessels assembled there, But independently of other objections that might be raised to the probability of these traders having polished the language of the people whose ports they frequented, or having imparted to them their national literature, it is to be observed that by much the greater proportion of the ships belonging to native merchants, which now enter the straits of Malacca, come from the coast of Coromandel, and consequently are navigated by persons who speak the languages prevailing in that part; whereas it is evident, that, from the Telinga, or the Tamool, the Malayan has not received any portion of its improvement, but from the genuine Hinduvee of the northern provinces, prior to its debasement by the mixture of Arabic nouns, and the abuse of verbal auxiliaries. If