Leitmeritz, Austria
Names of the native races of the Philippines – the ethnographic list would not be confiscated – Rizal’s article on Tagalog orthography is sent to European orientalists – Mythological dictionary – Blumentritts on vacation – The grammar of the Tiruray language.
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Leitmeritz, Austria
19 July 1893
Professor Ferdinand Blumentritt
Dr. Jose Rizal
My very dear Friend Rizal,
I have the pleasure to send you by the same mail today a copy of my supplement to the alphabetical list of the names given to the native races of the Philippines. It is a copy of the German edition, for the Geographical Society of Madrid will publish a Spanish edition. As in the said publication there is no allusion of a political character I have no doubt that the Commander will deliver it to you. I am not sending you anymore the version that I published in the bulletin if the Royal Institute of History, Ethnography, and Linguistics of the Dutch or orthography of the Tagalog, published by you in Spanish in 1891. I sent copies of that pamphlet to all the celebrities of the orientalist world.
I am publishing my mythological dictionary, dedicated to the Most Illustrious Bishop of Oviedo. Neither do I send you a copy of it because in the introduction there is a political allusion and thus it is to be supposed that the article will not be given to you. The German edition will not contain any political allusion in its introduction, but it will be published later. I suppose about the end of January next, so that I will send you by the next mail a manuscript copy of the second article that contains the letter “A” of the aforesaid mythological dictionary.
All my family are in good health. Now we celebrate the sweet otium[1] of vacation with frequent excursions to the mountains around, which pleased you so much when we had the joy of embracing you here.
At present I am reading the grammar of the Tiruray language, a language that is closer to the languages of Polynesia than to the rest of the languages of the Archipelago. It is very interesting to observe also that in that Philippine dialect there are words of Sanskrit origin, a proof of the ancient relations that existed between the India of the Ganges and the Philippines.
And with nothing more for the present, my wife, my sons, Federico, Loleng, and Conradito send you affectionate regards.
An embrace of your friend.
Fernando Blumentritt
01-792 [Family]
[1] Idleness.