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Ch. 7: Sooloo Archipelago

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134
Pearls.
100 dollars, but ordinary lads and men are worth 40 to 60 dollars, whilst girls vary from 50 to 100 dollars, according to age and beauty.
The Sooloo language is a difficult one, and there are not a dozen Europeans who can speak it. Mr. Haynes, who has lived for several years in the group, has framed an extensive dictionary, and he finds a far greater resemblance between the Sooloo and Fijian tongues, than between the Fijian and the other Malay languages. Whether the mi­gration has in former ages flowed from Polynesia westwards or whether the current took an easterly direction from Malayan countries, will probably never be known ; but there is a very close resemblance to be found in the words expressing the numerals, and those elements and natural phenomena which are everywhere the earliest and simplest forms of speech.
In the formation of verbs also there is a remarkable similarity, the Fijian prefix vaka being closely akin to the invariable Sooloo prefix mak.
The Fijian language may be said to abound in dental consonants and final vowels, whereas the Sooloo native, with his mouth full of betel nut
Ch. 7: Sooloo Archipelago Page of 341 Ch. 7: Sooloo Archipelago
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