O F T H E M A L A Y E S. 39 



that it fortifies the ftomach, and excites the amorous pafTlnns ; 

 for which laft purpofe it is bought and highly efleemed by the 

 Chinefe. 



M. Somierat * gives a very apocryphal account of the wild Wild Mew, 

 men of Malacca, who inhabit the woods and live in the trees. 

 If they fee any one pafs, they inftantly defcend and devour him» 

 There is, fays he, another kind, lefs ferocious, and which fliun 

 the fociety of their anthropophagous brethren ; thefe live on 

 fruits, are monogamous, and never cohabit with their wives, but 

 when nature invites j fome even will enter into a fort of traffic 

 with the Malayes, and depoiit at the foot of their tree-habita- 

 tions, the tin they colled: on the mountains, for which the 

 natives leave fruits, and any trifles they think acceptable to 

 their fechided brethren; their language is unknown. M. Son- 

 nerat fays he f^^iw one (taken young) in the fervice of a 

 {:o\\x\{^'\\oY Q>i Malacca. I wifii he had fallen to the lot of a 

 Scotch Ju.l^^e ; what a treafure would he have been to Lord 

 Monboddo ! Serioully, M. 5'(?;^;2<?r<2/ muft have colleded fome 

 tales of the Ouranjr Outang, poffibly a native of this coimtry, as . 

 it is of the Malayan archipt-lago. 



The Malayes are a well made people, but rather below 

 (fays Mr. Marfden) the middle ftature ; their limbs fmall, well 

 fliaped, and particularly (lender at the w rifts and ancles ; their 

 complexions tawney ; their eyes large ; their nofes flat, probably 

 by art ; their hair black, fliining, and very long. 



There are a few birds that 1 mention, becaufe M. Sonnerat Birds. 

 afcribes thenVto the peninfula ; yet all that are found here muft 



* Vol. ii. 102. 



alfo 



