VOCABULARIES. IS I and from the incompatibility of the idioms of the European and Indian languages. Ordinary voyagers are seldom or never to be trusted, and endless ex- amples of the ridiculous blunders committed by them might be adduced. For the reader's satisfac- tion and amusement, I shall quote a few examples from our own old voyagers and travellers. The first specimen of the language of Java with which we meet is in the voyage of Sir Francis Drake. It is called " Certaine wordes of the naturall language of Java, learned and observed by our men there." It turns out to be not Javanese, but a mixture of that language with Sunda and Malay. The very first word affords a striking example of the progress of error in matters of this nature. For silk, we have the word sahiick, which means a sash. The origin of this blunder is obvious. The sashes worn by the Javanese are usually of silk. The in- quirer, wishing for the native name of silk, pointed to a silken sash, and received the name of the in- dividual for that of the class. The word dodttck^ which ought to have been written dodot, is an in- stance of the same kind. It is interpreted ** blue cloth," but means properly the portion of dress with which the loins of the natives are usually gird- ed, and which is frequently of a blue colour. * lu Ogilbie's Asia we have " a brief vocabulary of the Malayan tongue," I know not where obtained, i — ■
- Drake's voyage in Hakluyt's Voyages, Navigations, &c.
Peprint, Vol. IV. p. 246.
