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Maori and Polynesian: their origin, history and culture

It was in Indonesia that this Evolution was accomplished

It was in Indonesia that this Evolution was accomplished

(8) But it must not be forgotten that this flexionless grammar belongs not merely to Maori, but to the dialects of all the groups of Polynesia. Not only so, but the very page 85relics of grammatical inflection are the same in all. And this reveals that the grammar, as it is, was brought with the conquerors, and being as simple as it well could be it was acquired by the conquered. Nay, there is evidence that it had already been stripped of its grammatical forms before it passed from Indonesia. For this flexionless character, along with some of the relics of inflection, belongs not merely to the Malay tongue, but to the Malagasy, spoken so far away as the east coast of Africa. The mistake made by early observers was that the Polynesian dialects, as well as the Malagasy, were all derived from Malay as spoken by the navigating race that founded the empire in the Malay Peninsula from Sumatra in the twelfth century. An even greater mistake was made in classifying the Polynesians and the Malays as the same in race because of the similarity of their languages. It was assumed by both that the Malay as a great navigator had traded into the Pacific and colonised the islands.

(9) The consideration of one fact alone would have prevented all such misconceptions. The iron age began in the Malay Archipelago about the beginning of our era; and not one scrap of iron or other metal was found in Polynesia before it was brought by the European voyagers. The historical Malay of Sumatra and the peninsula could, therefore, never have traded with the Pacific Islands; nor could his half-Mongol half-Caucasian ancestor, the Malayan, have had any intercourse with Polynesian after the beginning of our era.

(10) The true explanation is that the friction between two inflected tongues that resulted in the flexionless grammar must have taken place in the Indonesian archipelago before the Mongols appear there, and before the Malagasy dialect reached Madagascar, or the Polynesian dialect reached the South Sea Islands. In the great archipelago that stretches page 86from Sumatra to Celebes there must have been a vigorous and comparatively dense Caucasian population in prehistoric times either driving the negroid aborigines into the interior or absorbing them. Two Caucasian, and most probably two Aryan, tongues came into collision in Indonesia through the amalgamation of two Caucasian races; this and this alone will explain the evolution of so flexionless and so modern a language with the embedded relics of inflection in it.

(11) That this occurred some centuries before our era can be proved. For the Malagasy dialect contains no Hindoo or Sanskritic words like the Malay and the Polynesian. Hence it must have hived off before there was much migration from India into Indonesia; and that is supposed to have begun at least three centuries before our era. The Arabic words in the tongue of Madagascar have been shown to be very ancient, and are probably due to the voyages of the Himyarites of South Arabia, the Sheba of Solomon, along the east coast of Africa in search of gold and other precious products of that continent.

(12) The colossal mortuary dolmens and circles of Madagascar indicate that it was reached by the megalithic migrants, who, after coming to the ocean in the east along the southern Asiatic route, took to far-voyaging. They point back to Sumatra and Java and their colossal-stone monuments; whilst the comparatively fair complexion of many of the Malagasies points to a Caucasic or originally European infiltration into the African island. But there must have been a Malayan or half-Mongoloid, half-Caucasic immigration as well. For the kinship of the Malays and the Malagasies is apparent in their features, their small stature, and their general character. We may infer, therefore, that the intrusion of the Mongols into Indonesia occurred at least three or four centuries before our era. But it is equally clear that they had not overflowed the whole archipelago and modified its page 87Caucasian inhabitants. Many parts must have been un-Mongolised. For the Polynesians, who undoubtedly rested in Indonesia, carried no Mongol features or characteristics with them into their ultimate home. They remained tall, wavy-haired, bearded, and comparatively long-headed, such as no Mongol or Malay ever was; nor have they any of the recklessness or the sullen fitfulness of the Malay.