1836.] Sketch of the State of Muar, Malay Peninsula. 565 



He evinced an extreme sensibility to the stimulus of light, from 

 which he almost constantly kept his eyes guarded by shading them 

 with his hands. He told me he could see better than his neighbours 

 in imperfect darkness, and best by moonlight, like the " moon-eyed" 

 Albinos of the Isthmus of Darien. 



He is morbidly sensitive to heat : for this reason and on account of 

 the superstitious respect with which the Malays regard him, he is 

 seldom employed by his friends in outdoor labour, although by no 

 means deficient in physical strength. The credulous Malays imagine 

 that the Genii have some furtive share in the production of such 

 curiosities, though this they tell as a great secret. To this day the 

 tomb of his grandfather, who was also an Albino, is held sacred by the 

 natives, and vows (niyats) made at it. Both his parents were of the 

 usual colour. His sister is an Albino like himself. 



Albinos, I believe, are not common on the peninsula, nor are there 

 any tribes of them as, according to Voltaire, exist in the midst of 

 Africa. In the only two instances I recollect observing, the eyes 

 were, in both, of a very light blue ; the cuticle roughish and of a 

 rosy blush, very different from that of the two African Albinos seen 

 and described by Voltaire, and quoted by Lawrence; " Leur 

 blancheur n'est pas la notre ; rien d'incarnat, nul melange de blanc 

 et de brun, c'est une couleur de linge, ou plutot de cire blanchie ; 

 leurs cheveux, leurs sourcils sont de la plus belle et de la plus douce 

 soie ; leurs yeux ne resemblent en rien a ceux des autres hommes, 

 mais ils approchent beaucoup des yeux de perdrix." Essai sur les 

 Mceurs. 



Whitelaw Ainslie, in his description of the Albinos of continental 

 India, ascribes to them the same delicacy of constitution and shyness 

 observable in the Malayan Albino, and that they are seldom known to 

 live to an advanced age. The females, he remarks, rarely bear chil- 

 dren ; but when they do, their offspring is of the natural colour of 

 the cast to which they belong. 



Observations on the Muar river. — The Muar river at the mouth has 

 an apparent width of about 600 yards, and at Gressik 18 miles up the 

 stream is about 100 yards broad and 7 fathoms deep. The soundings 

 at the bar varied from f to 4 fathoms low water. The current ran at 

 the rate of 2\ miles an hour. It has its rise, according to the natives, 

 among the mountains of Jellaboo, and falls into the sea about 30 miles 

 south-east of Malacca. From these mountains the Serting river, 

 which disembogues itself into the China sea at Pahang, and the Calang 

 river, which flows into the Straits of Malacca near Salangore, have 

 also their rise. The general direction of the Muar river from the 



