XIV. SOME NOTES ON ABORIGINAL TRIBES OF 

 UPPER PERAK. (Plates XXXI— XXXIV). 



By Ivor H. N. Evans, B.A., Assistant Curator and Ethno- 

 graphical Assistant F.M.S. Museiims. 



The following observations were made among three 

 aboriginal tribes during an expedition to Upper Perak in 

 March and April of 1915. The tribes visited were the Semang 

 of Grik, the Orang Jehehr of Temengoh, and the Hill Sakai of 

 the main range, the particular sections of the last-named 

 tribe met with livmg close to the bridle path which runs from 

 Temengoh to Lasah in Ulu Plus. I here deal with each tribe 

 separately and in the order given above. 



THE NEGRITOS OF GRIK. (Plate XXXL Fig. i). 



The Negritos of Grik appear to be absolutely similar to 

 those of Lenggong, whom I have already described in a former 

 number of this Journal.* I purpose therefore to say but little 

 about them here, with the exception of setting down any in- 

 formation which I did not obtain at Lenggong. It has, I 

 think, been customary to look upon the Negritos or Semang 

 of Grik as being of purer race than those of Lenggong, and, 

 indeed, in the article on the Lenggong tribe I myself spoke 

 of "the pure Semang of Grikt." The Grik people told me 

 that some of them are related to individuals of the Lenggong, 

 Gelok, and Kuala Kenering communities, but I gathered they 

 do not hold very much intercourse with them. The Malays 

 call these small bands of Semang from Lenggong to and 

 beyond Grik, Sakai Jerani. They speak a Sakai, i.e., non- 

 Semang dialect, and are of fairly pure Negrito stock. 



In my former paper on the Semang of Lenggong I stated, 

 on evidence obtained from the Negritos of Ijok,t that the 

 Lenggong tribe called themselves Semark Blum. This infor- 

 mation is perfectly correct, but I find (from what I learnt at 

 Grik) that the translation of the name which I gave, i.e. men 

 of the big (water), is not. Semark in the first place does not 

 appear to mean men in general (homines), but is used in refer- 

 ence to the aborigines only; secondly, Ong Blum, which I 

 translated " big water," is as far as I can make out the abori- 

 ginal name for the Perak river, which presumably rises not far 

 from the Blum district in Upper Perak. Ong Blum, thyefore, 

 means the Blum River (or water), and Semark Blum, the 

 aborigines of the Blum. Of course the Perak river is to them 



//ig big river (or water), hence, I imagine, the mistake.^ The 



. — ^ 



* Journal F.M.S. Museums Vol. V, No. 2, 1914. 

 t I had not then visited them. 



I See also " Notes on the aboriginal inhabitants of Ijok," Journal F.M.S. 

 Museums, Vol. V, No. 4. 



H " The big Perak river " would, they said, be " Ong Blum chekah':" 



