62 



It is customarv to divide the wild tribes of tlie Malay Peninsula 

 iuto three distinct classes : the " Seniaug," or black woolly-haired 

 aboriL,'iues of the North : the " Sakai," or fair wavy-haired aborij^ines 

 of tlio Biitani; Padauij; mountains ; and the " Jaknns," or Indonesian 

 aboriifines of Malacca and Jolior. Of the Jakuns, Dr. Martin has little 

 to tell us — he saw nothing of them : but confined his personal obser- 

 vations to a few men of the Blanda. Besisi, Senoi and Scmang types 

 — the liest-known or stock types of " aborigines." Quite apart, how- 

 ever, from the " Jakun " omissions, it is extremely doubtful whether 

 Dr. Martin has reully done more than deal with the outer fringe of 

 the '• Sakai" «|Uestion. The " Semang," in the North, are cei-taiuly 

 a highly specialized race ; but between them and the Scuoi of Batang 

 Padang lie other important tribes — the " Tembe," of Clifford ; the 

 " Bastard Semang," of Anuandale and Robinson — who differ from 

 both Scnoi and Semang, and who are not at all adequately discussed 

 in Dr. Martin's bot>k. In the valley of the Nenggiri there is said to 

 Vm a lai'ge community of Sakais ; very little is known about them, and 

 Dr. Martin adds nothing to our knowledge. In the little-known country 

 between the Tembeling and the Kuantan, there are more Sakais, but 

 nothing whatever is known about their language, and the little that is 

 known aljout their blowpipes and their costume shows a great difference 

 between them and the other wild tribes of the Peninsula. In Selangor, 

 the dialect of the Sakais behind Rasa has some niarked peculiarities, 

 while that of the Oraug Kcuaboi between Sungei Lui and Jelebu is 

 (if our vocabularies are to be trusted) totally unlike any other known 

 hur'naire. The numerous Sakai settlements between Johol and the 

 Upper Rompin have also to be investigated. In any case, it is 

 quite clear that the three stock divisions — " Semang," " Sakai " and 

 " Jakun" — are not an adequate description of the aboriginal races of 

 the Peninsula, and will have to be extensively modified in the future. 



Dr. Martin's work is, therefore, not by any means " the last word" 

 on the wild tril)es of Malaya, but it is an excellent summing iip of all 

 that we know at ]>resent about them. Our information hitherto has 

 Ijeen largely of the nature yf travellers' tales ; Dr. Martin has subjected 

 those tales — (.'Specially the tales of "Professor" Vaughan-Stevens — to 

 scientific analysis and distinguishes to some extent between the true 

 and the false. He begins by giving us 7o pages on the Greography, 

 Greology, Climate, Flora and Fauna of the Peninsula — a section of the 

 work which is called for by continental ideas of thoroughness and not 

 bv any sf)ecial light that it throws on the questicms at issue. He then 

 goes on to discuss the data about Pre-historic Malaya. Who made 

 the stone implements that we find in the Peninsula Y Dr. Martin 

 gives good reasons for Ijelieving that the Sakais did not make them. 

 He then discusses the hist<jrical data, frc^m Herodotus to the last cen- 

 sus returns : but they throw no light on the origin of the Sakais. We 

 thi-n get a very u.seful 'J<,> }»ages on the History of Sakai Research, in 

 Ashich Dr. Martin discusses very thoroughly the work of Vaughan- 



