464 THE WJLD TRIBES OF THE MALAY PENINSULA 



seems to have been that they were the otl'sprinjj of African negroes who 

 had escaped from slave dhows which had been wrecked in the Eastern 

 Archipelago; indeed, I have heard of one widely recognized authority 

 who maintained that the Negritos were the descendants of African 

 slaves brought over by Alexander the Great when he visited India. 



Nowadciys, however, anthropology takes a more sober view of racial 

 relationships, and it is pretty generally acknowledged that the Negritos 

 are not Negroes, nor even a branch of the Melanesian or Papuan race, 

 as others have held, although, if there is to be guessing, the hypothe- 

 sis that would appear to have the most likelihood of being some day 

 substantiated is the brilliant suggestion of Sir William Flower, who 

 thought that the Negritos might possibly represent an infantile type 

 of a woolly-haired race, of which the Negro on the one hand and the 

 Papuan on the other were higlily specialized derivatives. Even this, 

 however, as I have said, is but guesswork, and for our present pur- 

 poses we must be content to regard the Negro, the Negrito, and the 

 Papuan as the representatives of three very different and separate 

 racial types. 



It may perhaps be of interest to add that for many 3^ears, perhaps 

 on account of the tree-dwelling habits of some of these tribes, it was 

 hoped that the Semang might possess some ape-like attributes. 

 Though these expectations have been shattered, and the Semang can 

 not henceforth be regarded as possessing an abnormally pithecoid 

 character, he still retains the interest which attaches to him as a rep- 

 resentative of one of the wildest races of mankind now extant. 



The second type of which these races are composed is represented 

 b}' the Sakai tribes, who offer, if possible, a yet more difficult problem. 

 An attempt has recently been made to identify them, mainly, it seems, 

 on the strength of linguistic evidence, with what is called the Mon- 

 Annam group of races, i. e., with the tribes who possessed till about 

 six hundred years ago the country which is now Siam, and some of 

 whom still occupy Pegu and Camboja. 



Linguistic evidence has, however, repeatedly proved a blind guide 

 in the elucidation of racial problems, and I do not think we can depend 

 upon it in the present case. Racial classitications must be based on 

 racial facts, and in the present case we have the more crcdable 

 alternative suggested by Professor Virchow for what appears to ))e a 

 very different grouping. 



Virchow's theory is simply that the Sakai may (juite possibly belong 

 to what he calls the Dravido- Australian race, the chief reprt^sentatives 

 of which are the Veddas or wild tribes of Ceylon, the civilized Tamils 

 of southern India, the Australian black fellows, and the Sakai of the 

 Malay Peninsula. 



In the essential characters of the hair aiul head, there is certainly a 

 remarkal)le agreement, and the only gn^at difficulty about this group- 

 ing seems to arise From the color of the skin, which among the Sakais 



