THE WILD TRIBES OF THE MALAY PENINSULA." 



Bv W. W. Skeat, M. a. 



In addition to the civilized brown-skinned Muhamniadan ]Malavs, 

 who are a distant oti'shoot of the Mongolian stock, there are at least 

 three groups of savage and heathen tribes in the Mala^y Peninsula, 

 which nui}' be roughly distinguished as follows, according to the char- 

 acter of their hair: 



1. Woolly-haired Negrito tribes, called Semang. 



2. ^Vavy-haired tribes, called Sakai. 



3. Straight-haired tri])es, called Jakun.'' 



Of these, the Negritos (Semang) are found in northern Perak, 

 Kedah, Kelantan, Trengganu, and the northern districts of Pahang 

 (PL 1, 1); the Sakai in southern Perak, Selangor, and Pahang (PI. I, 2), 

 and the Jakuns (mixed with other tribes) in all districts south of the 

 States mentioned down to flohor and Singapore, and also, generally 

 speaking, along the coasts (PI. I, o). 



The lirst of these groups — the Semang — is a fairly pure branch of 

 the Negrito race, which includes the natives of the Andaman Islands, 

 in the Bay of Bengal; the Negritos, of the Philippine Islands, in the 

 China Sea, north of Borneo, and the Semang, of Malaya. 



A curious point about this group is that it still remains a moot (jues- 

 tion — as our most recent authorities declare — whether any Negritos 

 occur in Borneo, which would naturally be the connecting link between 

 the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines. 



Some day it may be possible to answer this question, but meanwhile 

 it is no less difficult to say who the Negritos really are. They seem to 

 have received their name from the Spaniards, who regarded them as a 

 sort of dwarf negro race, although they have nothing in common with 

 the true Negroes but their woolly hair and black skin. The old idea 



"Reprinted, by permission of the antlior and publisher, from Journal of the 

 Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. XXXII, Januai"y-Jnne, 

 1902, pp. 124-138. 



''Presented to the Institute February 11, 1902. 



cThis classification is practically base<l upon that of Prof. Rudolf Martin, of Zurich, 

 who for some years past has l)een preparin<^ an important monograph on the very 

 difficult anthropology of these tribes. It differs solely in the isolation of the third 

 (Jakun) type, which is included in Martin's third group under the heading of 

 "Mixed tribes.^' 



463 



