[POLYNESIAN MIGRATIONS + LANGUAGES] Histoire et origine des Foulahs ou Fellans. 

Paris : Librairie orientale, 1841. Series: Mémoires de la Société ethnologique. Octavo (220 x 140 mm), publisher’s printed wrappers (darkened and with minor stains, lengthy paper split along spine, dog-eared corners); half title with the author’s presentation inscription in ink; pp. xii, 296, folding map of Africa at rear; pale water stain to fore-edge margin of first few leaves, otherwise internally clean and sound.

A very scarce monograph, originally published by the Ethnological Society of Paris, which is devoted to the mystery of the origins of the Fula (Fulani) people of West and Central Africa, and their language. The author’s hypothesis – that the Fulani had Malayo-Polynesian ancestors – means that, rather unexpectedly for an African linguistic study, the work has a number of appendices (contained in the last 110 pages or so) relating to the Pacific region and to the origin and migrations of Polynesian peoples (including extracts from d’Urville and Moerenhout), with comparative vocabularies of the main languages ​​of the Malay archipelago, and of the Polynesian languages and dialects.

OCLC locates no copies in New Zealand or Australian libraries.