THE PIGMIES. 11 



practised at least in the same degree as that described by M. 



MoNTANO. 



With still more reason must it have been the same with the more 

 or less mixed tribes of Malacca. M. Montano informs us that 

 the Manthras have still preserved a recollection of the days when 

 their ancestors ruled over the whole country. At that time, they 

 say, they had numerous records written on leaves. This fact implies 

 in itself a social state of which M. Moista.no seems to have found 

 traces in the very name of his guide. He was called, as his father, 

 grandfather, and, no doubt, his ancestors had been, Panglima dalam . 

 which the traveller translates as "the lord who administers the 

 Sultan's palace." ( l ) This descendant of some great dignitary is 

 now but a simple coolie in a Chinese plantation. In the Malay 

 Peninsula, as in India, conquest has destroyed States that were 

 considerable and flourishing once upon a time, but of which even 

 recollection has been lost, driving back to the jungles and mountains 

 the races, more or less Negroi'd, which had founded them. There 

 the race, like many other Dravidian ( 2 ) groups, has returned to a 

 wild life. It has been broken up and divided into tribes and small 

 communities, ( 3 ) and the hierarchy of chiefs, recorded by Logan 

 as existing among the Bermun populations, is probably all that is 

 left of its former social state. ( 4 ) 



(!) Montano. Quelques jours chez les indigenes dela province cle Malacca. 

 {Revue d" Ethnographic Vol. I, p. 48). 



(2) The Bhils among- others ; however, they still have permanent homes, 

 well built houses grouped in villages. What may be considered as a suppo- 

 sition with regard to some of the Bermun tribes would seem to be well ascer- 

 tained with respect to their brethren the Binuas. Logan informs us that the 

 latter were in former times g-overned by kings, the origin of whom was 

 supposed to be supernatural and whose descendants are still to be found. 

 (Logan, loc. cit. p. 279). 



(3) MONTANO, lor. cit. p. 46. 



(*) In his Memoir on the Binuas of Johore, Logan gives particulars con- 

 cerning five tribes to which all that I say here specially applies : they are 

 the UdaTs or Orang-Pagos, the Jakuns, the Saka'is, the Mintiras or Manthras 

 and the Besisis. These tribes inhabit the mountainous region of Grunong 

 Bermun, one of the highest ranges in the Malay Peninsula. Among the 

 Manthras, there exist head-men (Batiii) whose jurisdiction extends over well 

 defined districts. Each Batin has under him a Jinang, a Juhra or Jorohra, 

 and an indefinite number of Panglimas and VlubaJangs. On the death of a 



