The following notes were mrftle in the months- of May and June, 

 1912, during a ten days' stay among tlie Besisi of Tamboh, in the 

 Kuala Langat District of Selangor, situated on the coast, about half- 

 way between Batu and Sepang. 



The Besisi though still clinging to a certain degree to their old 

 roving habits have been gi'eatly affected by the advance of civilization, 

 man}' of them now even being able to ride bicycles, which they 

 borrow from the Chinamen. In clothing, with some slight modifica- 

 tions, they follow Malay fashions and bark cloth is no longer made.^ 

 The use of the blowpipe also appears to be rapidly dying out, partly, 

 the Besisi told me, owing to much ground having been cleared in 

 the neighbourhood, which makes it difficult for them to find an 

 Ipoh ti'ee (Antiari/i toxicaria) fi^om wliieh to obtain poison for their 

 darts. 



1. ^'AME OF TEIBE. 



The Kuala Langat aborigines will not acknowledge the name 

 hesisi as a tribal designation but call themselves aeliahat or sabat. 

 What they say is this: "The hill jDeople whom we call orang bukit 

 call our speech sisl. We call the hill people orang bulcit but their 

 language blandas. The name of our people is orang sabat, that of 

 our language sisi.'^ 



[The term " Besisi "* has become so standardised as connoting a 

 perfectly definite section of the aboriginal population that the sub- 

 stitution of a new name, even if technically correct, would only cause 

 confusion in the literature. In this series of papers, therefore, Besisi 

 will continue to be used.] 



2. PHYSICAL CHARACTERS. 



Haib. — The hair is generally cut quite close to the head, though 

 some of the m.en prefer to let it grow to two or two and a half 

 inches in length. A few of the boys wear it in the manner of 

 Malay children who have not yet been circumcised, others again have 

 it cut short, and in one case I observed that a youth's head had been 

 shorn so as to leave a rather long curly fringe about two inches broad 

 in front, while the hinder parts of the head were covered with only 

 short hair. This boy's hair besides being curly showed a distinct 

 reddish tinge. A tendency to ulotrichy was observed in several 

 individuals, but though in the case of the boy above mentioned the 

 ringlets were fairly tightly wound, the}" could not be compared with 

 the peppercorn structure which I have seen in photographs of typical 

 Semang. 



Skin Colour. — The average skin colour is No. 29 of Broca's chart 

 for the body, and between 28 and 29 for the face, the skin colour of 



1 The Besisi of Morib, Batu, and the vicinity both made and used bark 

 cloth as late as the middle of 1908.— H. C. R. 



