Note explanatory of the Index.
The Index has been prepared under a conviction that the permanent value of a work like this depends greatly upon the facility with which the information which it contains can be referred to. Although the table of contents is unusually full, it is, from its nature, insofar defective that the reader cannot ascertain, at a glance, what information the volume contains on any particular subject. This defect is remedied by the Index, which will also be found of great utility for purposes of comparison. The ethnographical enquirer, for instance, desirous of comparing the customs of the different nations and tribes described as to marriage, burial, &c., is enabled by the Index to do so by reference to those heads. While our knowledge of the Archipelago remains, as at present, in its infancy, and we possess neither a general gazetteer, nor even the geography of any one island, and have no complete vocabulary of a single language, it appears expedient to introduce into the Index the names of places, plants, animals &c., occuring in the volume, and also those of men, offices, human arts &c., The Malayan names of Malayan objects are more familiar to local writers than any equivalents which could be found for them in their own language, and they are hence sometimes mentioned without any explanation. In such cases the Index will supply the omission.
For easier reference the matter of the Index has been divided into two parts. The first, under the title General Index, contains 1st. an alphabetically arranged summary of the volume more minute than the table of contents, but refering to it when practicable, as under the heads Cochin China, Binua &c., where it seemed inexpediant to repeat the full analysis of the papers on those subjects given in the Contents, 2nd. a reference under the general titles, Ethnology, Geology, Geography, Arts, Customs &c., to all the notices appertaining to cach of these divisions of knowledge. The title of the second part, Index of Names and Glossary, explains itself. In itself it will be found to possess considerable ethnological value by bringing together names of "persons, places and things" used by different tribes, and thus facilitating comparison.
