The Natural History of the Varieties of ManLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Science
The Natural History of the Varieties of Man
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Ethnology
The tribes described by Mr. Brooke are chiefly the Lundu, Sakarran, the
Sarebas, the Suntah, Sow, Sibnow, Meri, Millanow, and Kayan; also the
Bajow, or Sea-Gipsies, who live as wanderers (pilots or pirates, as the
case may be) on the ocean, and are found on Borneo, the Sulu islands,
Celebes, and elsewhere.
The vocabularies given by Sir J. Brooke are--1. the Suntah; 2. Sow; 3.
Sibnow; 4. Sakarran; 5. Meri; 6. Millanow; 7. Malo; 8. Kayan. These
last are extended very nearly to the centre of the island.
In the way of intermixture, the nations that are most in contact with
the Borneans, especially the Mahometan Malays, are the Arabs and
Chinese.
CELEBES.
_Languages or dialects._--_a._ The Bugis.[56] _b._ The
Macassar. _c._ The Mandhar. _d._ The Harafura of Durville (Qu.
the Turaja of Crawfurd and Raffles).
_Alphabet of the Bugis._--Like, but probably formed
independently of the Tagala alphabet of the Philippines;
Sanskrit in origin.
Although the Mandhar and Macassar languages, or dialects, are less
developed as the instruments of literature than the Bugis, and although
the area over which they are spoken is less, whilst their commercial
importance is inconsiderable, there is no reason to believe that they
represent a civilization different in _kind_ from that of the Bugis.
This is not the case with the fourth dialect. I have called it the
Harafura of Durville, because the only vocabulary known to me has
been collected by that voyager. It is Malay, as truly as the Dyak of
Borneo is Malay; whilst those who speak it, although called Harafuras,
are Dyaks in frame and complexion. They were seen by Durville; and
especially described as being fairer in complexion than the other
inhabitants of the island. I have little doubt but that the Harafuras
of Durville are the Turajas of Crawfurd and Raffles.
The Bugis, however, represent the learning, and the commercial activity
of Celebes.
At present they are Mahometans. In A.D. 1504, when they were visited by
the Portuguese, they were beginning to be so; their missionaries being
the Mahometans of Sumatra and Malacca, and the religion, which was
displaced, being Hinduism.
How far this came direct from India, or how far it came by way of Java,
is uncertain. The results were the same for the two islands--in kind,
but not in degree. An alphabet, and a literature, indicative of Indian
influence, are common to both Java and Celebes. In the first island,
however, they are the more developed. Inscriptions have hitherto been
found in Java alone. The remains of temples have been attributed to
Celebes, but they have not been described, and they have not been seen
by Europeans.
The safe inference is, that the Hindu civilization extended itself
somewhat later to Celebes than it did to Java; and that it took root
less generally.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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