100 THE ENDAU AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 



English. Sembrong. 



One Sa 0) 



Branch (of a river or tree) Chedang 



Green, raw, (in taste) Meet 



Grave (tomb) Pendam 



A few days' longer sojourn would, no doubt, have brought a few 

 more words to light, but the fact is that the Jahun dialect, with 

 but one or tAVO exceptions, is a thing of the past, not only in this 

 part of the country, but throughout that portion of the Peninsula 

 which lies South of Malacca, having completely disappeared before 

 the influence of the Malays, which has been at work for a time 

 which may be reckoned by centuries. Amongst themselves the 

 Jakuns speak Malay only, a relic of their old tongue but seldom 

 cropping up in their conversation ; and these are the only traces of 

 it remaining, unless we except the pantang hdpur or bltdsa 

 kdjpur as Logan calls it. In that peculiar vocabulary (excepting 

 of course words of Malay origin and manufacture), I have no 

 doubt that we find embalmed relics of the aboriginal tongue, which, 

 but for the existence of a curious superstition, would have been 

 lost to us. 



This practically complete disappearance of the Jahun dialects in 

 the South of the Peninsula is owing, doubtless, to the more complete 

 intercourse between the aborigines and the Malays, which has been 

 rendered practicable, both from the East and the West, by the nar- 

 rowness of this part of the Peninsula, and the easy means of tra- 

 versing it afforded by the rivers in the absence of any extensive 

 central mountain ranges. 



There are still several Jahun settlements in Johor, viz., those on 

 the Sayong and the Lenggiu (the main confluents which form the 

 Johor River) on the Beirut, the Pontian, and the Batu Pahat rivers 

 flowing into the Straits of Malacca : on the eastern side are various 

 little settlements on the Sembrong and its tributaries, including 

 the small community, the greater portion of which are settled on 



0)"Malay «Satu"(?). 



