nvicts
had been sent up the Congo and Ubanghi rivers by the French. Several of
them had lived in that particular village of cannibals for some years.
Hence the adoption of certain words which had remained in frequent use,
whereas the Tonkinese individuals had disappeared.

I took special care in Brazil, when making a vocabulary of the Bororo and
other Indian languages, to select words which I ascertained were purely
Indian and had not been contaminated either by imported Portuguese words
or words from any other language. I was much struck by the extraordinary
resemblance of many words in the language of the Indians of Central
Brazil to the Malay language and to languages of Malay origin which I had
learnt in the Philippine Islands and the Sulu Archipelago.

For instance: the Sun, which is called in Malay _mata-ari_, usually
abbreviated into _'ari_, was in the Bororo language _metiri_, and in the
language of the Apiacar Indians of the Arinos-Juruena river, _ahra_,
which indeed closely resembles the Malay word. Moreover, the word _ahri_
in the Bororo language indicated the _moon_--a most remarkable
coincidence. It became slightly distorted into _zahir_ in the Apiacar
language.

Water, which is _poba_ in Bororo and _ueha_ in Apiacar, was curiously
enough _uehaig_ in the Bagobo language (Mindanao Island), _po-heh_ or
_bo-heh_ in the Bajao language (Mindanao Island), _ayer_ in Malay, and
_uhayeg_ in Tiruray (west coast of Mindanao Island, Philippine
Archipelago).

Father was _bapa_ in Malay, and _pao_ in Bororo. Many were the words
which bore a slight resemblance, as if they had been derived from the
same root. _Langan_, arm, in Malay, was _ankan-na_ or _akkan-na_. Ear, in
the Ilocano language (Philippine Archipelago) was _cabayag_; _aviyag_ in
Bororo. Hair in Ilocano, _b[)o][)o]k_, in Manguianes _bohoc_, and in Sulu
(Sulu Archipelago) _buhuc_; in Bororo it was _akkao_, which might easily
be a corruption of the two former words.

[Illustration: Bororo Warriors.]

[Illustration: Bororo Warriors.]

I was greatly interested, even surprised, to find that although those
Indians lived thousands of miles on every side from the sea, and had
never seen it, yet they talked of the _pobbo mae re u_--the immense
water; (_pobbo_, water; _mae_, great; _re_, the; _u_, an expression of
magnification such as our _oh_).

It was also interesting to note that they had specific words for water of
streams--words which we do not possess i