193 



THE PAXGAN OB^ TJIE CHEKA lllVER, PAHANG. 

 (Plates xxvi-xxx, xxxvii and xxxviii). 



The two divisions of the Pangan.met with on the Cheka are 

 settled as compared with those of many of the rivei's of Paliang, 

 which are said rarely to come in contact even with the Malays. 

 Each group is under the control of a Malay, whom they look upon 

 as their master and protector. The Malay on his side no doubt 

 makes a very good thing out of the pact, sending the Pangan oif into 

 the jungle to collect large quantities of rattans and other produce 

 for him, and supplying them in return with rice, tobacco, and 

 occasionally with a little cloth. The Malay who controls the 

 Pangan in the Ulu (head-waters of the) Cheka is a Sumatran 

 named Man, wlio has married a local Malay woman, it being 

 through his wife that he has obtained his power over the people. 

 The Pangan of the Kuala (mouth of the) Cheka are also " owned " 

 by a Sumatran Malay, a Kampar man, named Pakeli, who is a 

 son-in-law of the local Penghulu or village headman. The writer 

 was unfortunately only able to meet these groups of Pangan for a 

 short time, altogether parts of four days, as in both cases their 

 Malay master Avas impatient for them to go in search of jungle 

 produce, and only kept them back for a couple of days by special 

 request. 



TllIBAL NAME AND ORGANIZATION. 



The tribal name of the Cheka Pangan, and that l)y which they 

 like to be called, appears to be Battek, which in their own language 

 simply means " men." In dealing with people in a low state of 

 civilization there is generally a difficulty in getting them to grasp 

 abstract ideas, and it it is always quite possible that no true 

 tribal name may exist apart from that given by a race in a more 

 advanced state. Many of the aboriginal tribes of the Peninsula, as 

 the Cheka people, simply call themselves " men " (Senoi, Menik 

 Semark, etc.), or, if they can give more details, describe themselves 

 as, "men of the marshes," (menik gul), men of the river reaches, 

 (menik rantau), men of the big river (semark blum), etc. After all 

 from what are many of our European national names derived if not 

 from some such simple beginnings, e.g. Saxons, men who wear the 

 Seaxe, Cymri said to mean comrades, French (Frank) probably 

 meaning free ? The Cheka people repudiated absolutely the name of 

 Pangan, which they gave tlie writer to understand denoted a low, 

 black, jungle-living, root-eating kind of a person quite different from 

 themselves. Pangan in the sense of being eastern Negritos they 

 however undoubtedly wei-e, but they had progressed in so far that 

 they had to a certain extent abandoned their wandering life and had 

 taken slightly to agriculture. Pangan too was the usual term used 

 by the local Malays* in speaking of the Cheka aborigines among 



* The Pangan name for the Malays is Gup. 



