180 THE BIBLE IN POLYNESIA. The Malayan or Polynesian tongues are peculiarly interesting. They are very extensively diffused. They abound with traces of foreign influence; the Malay containing many Arabic terms, and the Javanese many taken from Sanscrit. They are spoken by nations long degraded, some of whom are still sunk in the grossest superstition; while others have yielded, in a way no less remarkable, to the light of truth. How striking the contrast between the people of Madagascar, of Borneo, of Java, and the people of Tahiti and Rarotonga! V.-POLYNESIAN OR MALAYAN. INDO-MALAYAN FAMILY: the following and fifty-four others. Malay. 1629.. 1663.. 1677 46,000 Rugl, Leidekker, Malayan 1685.. 1814, etc. Archip. etc. |