Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/96

V8 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE • principle of forination and classification, that they might have been modified on the introduction of Hinduism by the priests of that religion ; and, if we reflect that, in the early age of letters in every country, learning is entirely in the hands of the priesthood, and rather an instrument of priestcraft than of common utility to the society, we can readily understand how easily such a modification might have been introduced. Time, and the circumstance of writing, either on paper, or palm leaves, or bark, must be deemed wholly inadequate to account for the difference be- tween the different Polynesian alphabets and the supposed parent alphabet. The alphabet of Java is written to-day with little or no difference on Bali, and on Palembang in Sumatra, after the inter- course between them has been interrupted for be- tween three and four hundred years, and although in Java the character be, almost always, written on paper, and in Bali invariably on the Palmyra leaf. Any of the languages of the more improved tribes of the Archipelago, may be resolved into the seven following component parts: 1. The primitive language of the rude horde with which the tribe originated, which may be looked upon as the radical portion of the language. 2. The Great Polynesian language, a language which extends its influence from Madagascar to New Guinea and the South Sea Islands.j, 3, The language of the