In the savage mountain tribes of Formosa — separated as they are from each other by impenetrable forests, rocky barriers, impetuous torrents, and deep ravines, as well as by ceaseless warfare — we have an example of the change which, in time, may be effected in a language by the breaking up of a race into tribes which for at least two hundred years have been, from necessity, for the most part, isolated from each other, and where oral tradition afforded the only means of retaining a knowledge of their original tongue. We find that the numerals of the language, which were probably the sounds most con- stantly in use, have suffered least change, and the number " five " has retained its original sound. This may be from the fact that among primitive tribes who have no written numerals, the five fingers of the hand are invariably used to solve their simple problems in arithmetic; so notably, indeed, is this the case, that in many dialects five" and "hand" are synonymous: the hand in that way becoming a sort of — if I may use the expres- sion — rude hieroglyphic signifying five. In the same way " eye ", or Mata, is a simple, easily remembered sound; and as it designates the organ of sight — something that has its sign in each human face, that is in constant use, and constantly appealed to to satisfy the savage, as well as the most cultivated instincts — it too has been retained, in nearly its pure sound, in the various dialects. Thus I might go on selecting the words that appear to me to have retained their primitive sounds, simply because they find their visible symbols in the objects which surround the simple abodes of the aborigines.
But the reader, by referring to the Vocabularies, will be enabled to form his own conclusions, and to trace out the affinities, or the opposite, that exist between the Formosan dialects, and also the close family likeness which they bear to
