Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/77

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

OT CELEBES. 63 me, or cast me aside, still my love shall not change. Nothing but your image meets the eye of my fan- cy, whether I sleep or wake. Visions alone are propitious to my passion ; in these only 1 see thee and converse with thee. When I expire, let it not be said that I died by the ordinary decrees of fate, but say that I died through love of thee. What are comparable to the delightful visions which paint my love so fresh to my fancy ? Let me be separated from my native country, and at a distance from thee, still my heart is not far from thee. In my sleep, how often am I found wan- dering about and going in search of thee, hoping, perchance, I may find thee?" The Bugis, as the most copious and ancient tongue, and that of the most numerous and power- ful people, may be looked upon, reasonably, as that which has exerted upon the cognate languages of the eastern portion of the Archipelago the local influence to which I have alluded. These tongues, as, for example, the languages of Sambawa, Flores, Timur, Butung, Salayer, kc, may be said to be composed of the following materials : — the original meagre dialect of each savage tribe — the Bugis — the great Polynesian language- — the Sanskrit — the Arabic, with trifling admixtures of the same ingredients mentioned in speaking of the composition of the Javanese. The Macassar