Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/140

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122 VOCABULARIES. which abounds in the most extravagant errors of all. Here are found such ludicrous interpretations as the following : senderiy (self) " all one ;" nante, (wait)

  • ' both ;" barmyn, (to sport) " foolish ;*' kyaeif

agurriy (ageing) (a saint or sage,) " a civil man ;" macanan minum, (meat and drink) " a wedding ;" kekeer, (a file, figuratively a miser) " bounteous ;" IboUf (mother) " a grandfather," and anacky (child, young, progeny) " a calf."* Sir Thomas Herbert's collection of Malay words is less extrava- gantly absurd than Ogilbie's, but still abounds in very ludicrous errors. He has cambi, (Jcambingy a goat) as the word for ox, and for a goat carbow, {kdrbao,) which is a buffalo. Some of his transla- tions put to defiance all attempt to trace them, as, for example, " Is he not here?" beef; " well done," sarsa; " let pass," ganga ; " near hand," glla. t

  • Asia, by John Ogilbie, Esq. bis Majesty's Cosmographer,

kc, p. 129. f Some years* travels into divers parts of Africa and Asia the Great, by Sir Thomas Herbert, Bart. p. 366. — Some more recent voyagers are as little to be relied on. Forrest, who had a vulgar knowledge of Malay, interprets karang- a&am^ the name of the principal state of the island of Bali,

  • ' the country of the rough roch^' knowing that karang com-

monly meant a roclc^ and asaniy. sour, vi^hich he thought, when in search of an etymology, he might alter into rough. But karang means also an orchard or grove, and the primitive signification of asam is the tamarind tree, so that the com- pound is literally and strictly " the tamarind grove.'^