SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 153 



semi-conscious, dreamy condition, and be quite happy. They live in 

 kampongs, in little attap houses, surrounded by cocoanut or fruit 

 trees. They plant their padi and then sit down to watch it grow. 

 They allow their wives and families to do the harvesting as well as 

 most of the work that has to be done. 



They are devout Mohammedans, pray five times a day, and attend 

 the mosque regularly. Their marriage and burial customs are in 

 accordance with Mohammedan law. 



The Malay dress consists of a jacket or baju, made of thin printed 

 cloth, and a kind of skirt or sarong fastened round the waist, but 

 many of the men wear Chinese trousers. The women's dress consists 

 of the sarong, worn as a skirt, with a belt round the waist, and a long 

 baju buttoned or pinned down the front. Another sarong is often 

 worn over the head. For a Mohammedan race the Malay women are 

 allowed an unusual amount of freedom ; their faces are generally fully 

 exposed. Although the Malays are the dominant race, and although 

 the Peninsula is named after them, they are immigrants only, or they 

 are supposed to be descended from immigrants, who arrived in the 

 Peninsula from Sumatra about the twelfth century. The Sakais are 

 supposed to be the aborigines of the Peninsula. 



The Malay alphabet is composed of the Arabic alphabet with six 

 letters added. The language is mainly disyllabic and contains many 

 words of Arabic and Sanskrit origin. The literature is very meagre. 



THE SAKAIS. 



As before mentioned the Sakais are supposed to be the aborigines 

 of the Peninsula. They are of negrito or negroid type, and are called 

 by the Malays " Orang Utan," or " men of the woods," and that is a 

 very good name for them, because the majority of them keep to the 

 woods. Only a few of the bolder ones ever come near civilisation. 

 In some of the out-stations, as Tapah and Gopeng, they may occa- 

 sionally be seen having come there to dispose of jungle produce and 

 to buy tobacco and salt, etc. 



In appearance they are dark brown or black, darker than the 



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