Memorandum, on the Aborigines in the Jasin 

 District of Malacca, dated 1892. 



By C. 0. Blagdex. 



[This memorandum is taken from an official file in the re- 

 cords at Malacca, where it attracted the attention of Mr. L. E. 

 Pipe Wolferstan, the Besident. At his suggestion, and with the 

 consent of the Colonial Government, and also after submission to 

 the author, it is published here that such valuable information may 

 not be altogether lost sight of.] Hon. Sec. 



The non-Muhammadan aborigines in the Jasin district are 

 commonly known to the Malays as Orang bukit, Orang utan or 

 (very generally) Orang rayat.* They belong according to their 

 own account to three principal tribes, viz : the Mentera, Jakun 

 and Besisi, although individuals of other tribes e.g. the Ivenaboi 

 are occasionally met with. The Mentera say that they themselves 

 are the real Malacca aborigines and that the true habitat of the 

 Jakun is Johor and of the Besisi Sungai Ujong and Selangor. 

 The Mentera also consider themselves very superior to the 

 Jakun ; they claim the tribal name of Biduanda in common 

 with the Muhammadan clan of that name, and the Malays freely 

 admit the fact of their own descent from the Biduanda tribe of 

 the Mentera and style the Mentera Bangsa tinggi as opposed to the 

 Bangsa rendah or lower caste of Jakun. The latter are distinctly 

 on a lower scale of civilisation : they plant less than the Mentera 

 and depend more on the chase; it is said that they freely eat 

 animals that have died a natural death, even if in an advanced stage 

 of decomposition,, and certainly their huts are smaller, ruder, and 

 of a more temporary make-shift appearance than those of the 

 Mentera, and their settlements are not so permanent. 



The Besisi as their language shows, are a Sakai tribe akin to 

 those of the centre of the Peninsula and look upon the Mentera 

 and Jakun as strangers calling them Landas or Belandas and pro- 

 fessing not to understand their language which is indeed altogether 

 different. 



The Mentera and Jakun at this date (1892) speak dialects 

 which, whatever their original character, are so deeply im- 

 pregnated with Malay that they are little better than Malay 



* This term is never by the Jasin Malays used with reference to themselves 

 except in direct opposition to the word raja. 



Jour. Straits Branch R. A. Soc, No. 77, 1917. 



