460 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [July, 1907. 



striking parallels between the objects in daily use, and especially 

 tbe patterns with which these objects are adorned, among the two 

 races ; but this is a wide question which I cannot discuss at present. 

 The fact, however, that Rama and Hanuman play an important 

 part in the folklore of the Malay Peninsula both among Muham- 

 madans and among Buddhists is perhaps worthy of note in con- 

 nection with the legends which link these demigods with the Gulf 

 of Manaar and especially with the region round Adam's Bridge; 

 for it is from this region that a large proportion of the '' Klings " 

 now permanently or temporarily resident in Malaya, have come. 

 I would even hazard a suggestion that it is largely owing to the 

 commercial activity of the " Labbies" and their ancestors that 

 the Malays of the mainland were first converted from pure Sha- 

 manism to Hinduism, and then from Hinduism to what they call, 

 in phraseology of curiously mingled derivation, the agdma Islam. 



In making this suggestion, I do not lose sight of the fact that 

 certain of the Indian elements of Hindu origin found in the ethno- 

 graphy of the peninsular Malays have probably been derived fi'om 

 Southern India by way of Java. The colossal ruins of that island 

 form a document in the study of Indian influence outside India far 

 more definite and satisfactory than any now to be found in Malaya, 

 and there can be very little doubt that the Javanese ^ have played 

 an important part in the history of the arts, if not of the politics, 

 of the Malay Peninsula. 



It has been thought by some that the Hindu elements in 

 .Malay ethnography were probably derived from intercourse with 

 Buddhists. Many of these elements are of so general a nature 

 that either of the two religions might have fostered them, and fur- 

 ther, it is probable that the Buddhism which influenced Malaya 

 was of a type which had relapsed a considerable part of the way 

 to Brahminism. Therefore, it has been held, even direct refer- 

 ences to essentially Hindu deities may have been taught by 

 Buddhists to the ancestors of the Malays. There seems to be 

 no "positive evidence, however, that the southern part of the 

 Malay Peninsula, in which part only Malays and aboriginal tribes 

 lived until comparatively recent days, was ever a Buddhist 

 country. This is the part of the peninsula which is nearest to 

 Java and in which legends referring to the Javanese are most 

 prevalent, and there can be no doubt that Indian Hindus visited 

 Java at an earlier date than Indian Buddhists. At any rate in 

 the northern part of the peninsula, every ruin of unlcnown origin 

 is popularly assigned to the Siamese,^ and the Siamese claim, pro- 

 bably because of mistaken ideas,^ even to have occupied the island 

 of Singapore at the extreme southern point* The term Siamese 

 among the Malays is synonymous with Buddhist, and at any rate 



See 



Itad., 1902. pp. 541-545. 

 « Cf. Blagden in Journ. Eoy. Asiat, Soc, 1906, p. 115. 



* But see Geriai, who takes a different view, in Journ. Roy, AsiaL Soc 

 1905, p. 493. 



