VII.] THE OCEANIC MONGOLS. 233 



The Malayan populations, as distinguished from the Malays 

 proper, form socially two very distinct classes the 

 Orang Benua, " Men of the Soil," rude aborigines, Malayans- 

 numerous especially in the interior of the Malay j^e anT 

 Peninsula, Borneo, Celebes, Jilolo, Timor, Ceram, Cultured - 

 the Philippines, Formosa, and Madagascar; and the cultured 

 peoples, formerly Hindus but now mostly Muhammadans, who 

 have long been constituted in large communities and nation- 

 alities with historical records, and flourishing arts and industries. 

 They speak cultivated languages of the Malayo-Polynesian family, 

 generally much better preserved and of richer grammatical struc- 

 ture than the simplified modern speech of the Orang-Malayu. 

 Such are the Achinese, Rejangs, and Passumahs of Sumatra ; 

 the Bugis, Mangkassaras and some Minahasans of Celebes ; the 

 Tagalas and Bisayas of the Philippines ; the Sassaks and Balinese 

 of Lombok and Bali (most of these still Hindus) ; the Madurese 

 and Javanese proper of Java ; and the Hovas of Madagascar. 

 To call any of these " Malays *," is hke calling the Italians 

 "French," or the Germans "English," because of their respec- 

 tive Romance and Teutonic connections. 



Preeminent in many respects amongst all the Malayan peoples 

 are the Javanese Sundanese in the west, Javanese 



rr\ * 



proper in the centre, Madurese in the east who j avane se. 

 were a highly civilised nation while the Sumatran 

 Malays were still savages, perhaps head-hunters and cannibals 

 like the neighbouring Battas. Although now almost exclusively 

 Muhammadans, they had already adopted some form of Hinduism 

 probably over 2000 years ago, and under the guidance of their 



1 In 1898 a troop of Javanese minstrels visited London, and one of them, 

 whom I addressed in a few broken Malay sentences, resented in his sleepy 

 way the imputation that he was an Orang Malayu, explaining that he was 

 Orang Java, a Javanese, and (when further questioned) Orang Solo, a native 

 of the Solo district, East Java. It was interesting to notice the very marked 

 Mongolia features of these natives, vividly recalling the remark of Mr A. R. 

 Wallace, on the difficulty of distinguishing between a Javanese and a Chinaman 

 when both are dressed alike. The resemblance may to a small extent be due 

 to " mixture with Chinese blood " (Dr B. Hagen, Jour. Anthrop. Soc. 

 Vienna, 1889); but occurs over such a wide area that it- must mainly be 

 attributed to the common origin of the Chinese and Javanese peoples. 



