Their food is nearly the same as that of the Batavian Indians, except the addition of the nuts of the palm, called Cycas circinalis, with which, upon the coast of New Holland, some of our people were made sick, and some of our hogs poisoned.
Upon observing these nuts to be part of their food, we enquired by what means they deprived them of their deleterious quality; and they told us, that they first cut them into thin slices, and dried them in the sun, then steeped them in fresh water for three months, and afterwards, pressing out the water, dried them in the sun a second time; but we learnt that, after all, they are eaten only in times of scarcity, when they mix them with their rice to make it go farther.
The houses of their town are built upon piles, or pillars, four or five feet above the ground: upon these is laid a floor of bamboo canes, which are placed at some distance from each other, so as to leave a free passage for the air from below: the walls also are of bamboo, which are interwoven, hurdlewise, with small sticks, that are fastened perpendicularly to the beams which form the frame of the building: it has a sloping roof, which is so well thatched with palm leaves, that neither the sun nor the rain can find entrance. The ground over which this building is erected, is an oblong square. In the middle of one side is the door, and in the middle between that and the end of the house, towards the left hand, is a window: a partition runs out from each end towards the middle, which, if continued, would divide the whole floor into two equal parts, longitudinally, but they do not meet in the middle, so that an opening is left over-against the door; each end of the house, therefore, to the right and left of the door, is divided into two rooms, like stalls in a stable, all open towards the passage from the door to the wall on the opposite side: in that next the door to the left hand, the children sleep; that opposite to it, on the right hand, is allotted to strangers; the master and his wife sleep in the inner room on the left hand, and that opposite to it is the kitchen. There is no difference between the houses of the poor and the rich, but in the size; except that the royal palace, and the house of a man, whose name is Gundang, the next in riches and influence to the king, is walled with boards instead of being wattled with sticks and bamboo.
As the people are obliged to abandon the town, and live in the rice-fields at certain seasons, to secure their crops from the birds and the monkies, they have occasional houses there for their accommodation. They are exactly the same as the houses in the town, except that they are smaller, and are elevated eight or ten feet above the ground instead of four.
The disposition of the people, as far as we could discover it, is good. They dealt with us very honestly, except, like all other Indians, and the itinerant retailers of fish in London, they asked sometimes twice, and sometimes thrice as much for their commodities as they would take. As what they brought to market, belonged, in different proportions, to a considerable number of the natives, and it would have been difficult to purchase it in separate lots, they found out a very easy expedient with which every one was satisfied: they put all that was bought of one kind, as plantains, or cocoa-nuts, together, and when we had agreed for the heap, they divided the money that was paid for it, among those of whose separate property it consisted, in a proportion corresponding with their contributions. Sometimes, indeed, they changed our money, giving us 240 doits, amounting to five shillings for a Spanish dollar, and ninety-six, amounting to two shillings, for a Bengal rupee.
They all speak the Malay language, though they have a language of their own, different both from the Malay and the Javanese. Their own language they call Catta Gunung, the language of the mountains; and they say that it is spoken upon the mountains of Java, whence their tribe originally migrated, first to Mew Bay, and then to their present station, being driven from their first settlement by tygers, which they found too numerous to subdue. I have already observed, that several languages are spoken by the native Javenese, in different parts of their island; but when I say that the language of these people is different from the Javenese, I mean that it is different from the language which is spoken at Samarang, a place that is distant only one day’s journey from the residence of the emperor of Java. The following is a list of corresponding words in the languages of Prince’s Island, Java, and Malacca.
| English. | Prince’s Island. | Javanese. | Malay. |
|---|---|---|---|
| A man, | Jalma, | Oong Lanang, | Oran Lacki Lacki. |
| A woman, | Becang, | Oong Wadong, | Parampuan. |
| A child, | Oroculatacke, | Lari, | Anack. |
| The head, | Holo, | Undass, | Capalla. |
| The nose, | Erung, | Erung, | Edung. |
| The eyes, | Mata, | Moto, | Mata. |
| The ears, | Chole, | Cuping, | Cuping. |
| The teeth, | Cutock, | Untu, | Ghigi. |
| The belly, | Beatung, | Wuttong, | Prot. |
| The backside, | Serit, | Celit, | Pantat. |
| The thigh, | Pimping, | Poopoo, | Paha. |
| The knee, | Hullootoor, | Duncul, | Lontour. |
| The leg, | Metis, | Sickil, | Kauki. |
| A nail, | Cucu, | Cucu, | Cucu. |
| A hand, | Langan, | Tangan, | Tangan. |
| A finger, | Ramo Langan, | Jari, | Jaring. |
In this specimen of the languages of places so near to each other, the names of different parts of the body are chosen, because they are easily obtained from people whose language is utterly unknown, and because they are more likely to be part of the original stamen of the language, than any other, as types of the first objects to which they would give names. It is very remarkable that the Malay, the Javanese, and the Prince’s Island language, have words, which, if not exactly similar to the corresponding words in the language of the islands in the South Seas, are manifestly derived from the same source, as will appear from the following table:
| English. | South Sea. | Malay. | Javanese. | Prince’s Isl. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| An eye, | Matta, | Mata, | Moto, | Mata. |
| To eat, | Maa, | Macan, | Mangan. | |
| To drink, | Einu, | Menum, | Gnumbe. | |
| To kill, | Matte, | Matte, | Matte. | |
| A louse, | Outou, | Coutou. | ||
| Rain, | Euwa, | Udian, | Udan. | |
| Bamboo cane, | Owhe, | Awe. | ||
| A breast, | Eu, | Sousou, | Sousou. | |
| A bird, | Mannu, | Mannu, | Mannuck. | |
| A fish, | Eyca, | Ican, | Iwa. | |
| The foot, | Tapao, | Tapaan. | ||
| A lobster, | Tooura, | Udang, | Urang. | |
| Yams, | Eufwhe, | Ubi, | Urve. | |
| To bury, | Etannou, | Tannam, | Tandour. | |
| A moschito, | Enammou, | Gnammuck. | ||
| To scratch, | Hearu, | Garru, | Garu. | |
| Coccos roots, | Taro, | Tallas, | Talas. | |
| In-land, | Uta, | Utan. |
This similitude is particularly remarkable in the words expressing number, which, at first sight, seems to be no inconsiderable proof that the science at least of these different people has a common root. But the names of numbers in the island of Madagascar, are, in some instances, similar to all these, which is a problem still more difficult to solve. That the names of numbers, in particular, are in a manner common to all these countries, will appear from the following comparative table, which Mr. Banks drew up, with the assistance of a negro slave, born at Madagascar, who was on board an English ship at Batavia, and sent to him to gratify his curiosity on this subject.