MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 



THE WILD TRIBES OE THE MALA! PENINSULA AND ARCHIPELAGO. 



The Council of the Royal Asiatic Society of the Straits 

 Branch have resolved to invite the assistance of persons residing* 

 or travelling' in the Peninsula, in Sumatra, or in the adjacent 

 countries, with a view to the collection of fuller and more varied 

 information than has been hitherto obtained in regard to the 

 wild tribes of these regions. 



The interest such investigations possess for Ethnology, 

 Philology &c, and the importance of prosecuting them without 

 delay, are sufficiently obvious. The following pasaage from Mr. 

 Logan's writings ( I. A. Journal 1850 vol. IV p. 264-5) will 

 instruct those to whom the subject is new as to the precise ob- 

 jects to be aimed at, and the best methods of enquiry to-be fol- 

 lowed. " For the Ethnology, of any given region the first require- 

 " ment is a full and accurate description of each tribe in it, and 

 " in the adjacent and connected regions, as it exists at present 

 " and has existed in recent or historical times. This embraces 

 " the geogTaphical limits and the numbers of the tribe, the 

 " Physical Geography of its locations, and its relations of all 

 "■ kinds to intermixed, surrounding, and more distant tribes. 

 i( The environments of the race thus ascertained, the individual 

 " man must be described in his Physiological and Mental Cha- 

 " racteristics and in his language. The Familv in all its pecu- 

 " liarities of formation and preservation, the relative position of 

 " its members, its labours and its amusements, must next be 

 " studied. The agglomeration of families into communities, 

 " united socially but not politically, is also to be considered. 

 " Lastly, the Clan, Society, Tribe or Nation as "a political unity, 

 "either isolated, confederate, or subordinate, must be investiga- 

 " ted in all its institutions, customs and relations ... ... .".. 



" When we attempt -to enquire into the cause or orignn of any 

 " of the facts presented by our ethnic Monograph of the kind 

 " we have indicated, we find that very little ligdit is to be ob- 

 " tained in the history of the particular' tribe. It suggests 

 " numerous enquiries, but can answer only a few. If we confine 

 " our attention to it, the great mass of its characteristics are 

 " soon lost in a dark and seemingly impenetrable antiquity. 

 " But although each race, w r hen thus taken by itself, vanishes 



