﻿i5 2 smithsonian miscellaneous collections [vol. 47 



Notes on Some Malay Peoples 



Dr. William L. Abbott, writing from Lower Siam, sends the 

 following note to the Department of Anthropology of the United 

 States National Museum: 



" I have a good series of photographs of the Hastings Harbor 

 Sellings. The men fish with spear, dive for shells, and make their 

 own canoes. The women make baskets and mats and gather shell- 

 fish. The Kopah Sellings are different both in race and language. 



" The Sellings are a very mixed race, but I believe there is an 

 original peculiar type amongst them, if it could be traced out. As 

 for the Malay, there is no Malay type. I do not believe there is a 

 native in the peninsula or in the archipelago west of New Guinea 

 who is pure for fifty generations, except the Andamanese and 

 Semangs and probably the Aetas. I, myself, cannot distinguish the 

 various races among the Malays, leaving dress out of account. They 

 are remarkably nomadic. Even the boundary line between the Sia- 

 mese and Malays is very indefinite. This universal mixing up has 

 been going on for ages, probably before the Mohammedan invasion ; 

 certainly more than ever it is going on now. The Menangkabo peo- 

 ple of the Padang highlands are supposed to be the purest Malays ; 

 they have the purest language." 



Professor Mason having written to Doctor Abbott inquiring why 

 it was that all the collections that come from the southern Malay 

 peninsula and northern Sumatra are dull-brown and somber in ap- 

 pearance, Doctor Abbott replies : 



" About somberness of Malay coloring, I think it is rather dingi- 

 ness. Mrs. Edmett, who was born in Selangor and was practically 

 brought tip with the children and grandchildren of the old sultan, 

 says there are three bright colors very much used by the Malays on 

 their festive occasions ; a gathering of rajahs and chieftains on a 

 gala day is a blaze of them. The sultan's color is a brilliant yellow ; 

 he wears a yellow handkerchief on his head and his umbrella is the 

 same color. You will see a red umbrella close by and also a blue 

 one. These three colors and also a bright magenta appear in most 

 of their gorgeous sarongs, worn on state occasions, some of them a 

 hundred years old, heavy with gold and silver thread and very 

 precious. But the common, everyday things in use are undoubtedly 

 dull or dingy. Everywhere the bazaars are full of cheap and gaudy 

 sarongs, handkerchiefs, and jackets. The women are dingier than 

 the men. The Malay, though clean in his person, is dirty in his 

 everyday dress. 



