OF THE INDO-CHINESE NATIONS. 219 



The Arabs^ in their early voyages, appear to have 

 frequently encountered the Papiias, whom they 

 describe in the most frightful colours, and constantly 

 represent as cannibals. They are mentioned by the 

 travellers Ibn Wahab and Abu Zei'd, in the SilsUet- 

 al-Tuarikh, translated by Rexaudot, and nearly the 

 same accounts seem to be repeated by Masudi, 

 Yakuti, and Ibn al ^yARDI. The following passage, 

 which gives the name of one of the tribes, is adduced 

 from the Persic treatise termed Seir ul Aklitn, the 

 author ©f which appears to have visited the eastern 

 islands. After mentioning the great island of cam- 

 phor, probably Borneo, he adds, " Beyond this are 

 other islands of different sizes, among which there is 

 one of considerable extent, inhabited by a race of 

 blacks termed Kahalut, who resemble brutes in form, 

 and when they can seize on a person, they kill and 

 eat him. Of this practice, I have had experience, 

 having escaped onl}' by throwing myself into the sea; 

 as the saying is, ' when you are going to be slain, 

 throw yourself into the sea, and i)erhaps you may 

 survive.' Even so it happened to me, for getting on 

 the trunk of a large tree, I kept my hold for three 

 days, when I was thrown by the force of the winds 

 and waves on a desert shore, and after enduring much 

 burger and thirst, reached at last an inhabited 

 country." 



Tlie tribes of the eastern islands exhibit a variety 

 of singular and interesting appearances, not only iix 

 the civil and political, but also in the natural and 

 moral history of man. If some of them appear in a 

 naked and primitive state of barbarism, in others the 

 vestiges of ancient art and science indicate, that they 

 have suffered a relapse from a prior state of civilization. 

 This is particularly obvious among the Malay, Java^' 



