108 ON THE MALATU NATION. 



here the least adulterated in their character, usages and 

 are bounded by the Siamese, to the north, whose en 

 establishments in the peninsula, as they have from time to time taken place, 

 may easily be defined. The Malays seem here to have occupied a coun- 

 try previously unappropriated ; for if we except an inconsiderable race of 

 Cajfries, who are occasionally found near the mountains, and a few tribes 

 of the Orang benua, there does not exist a vestige of a nation anterior ta- 

 the Malays, in the whole peninsula. 



As the population of the Malay Peninsula has excited much interest, 

 my attention has been particularly directed to the various tribes stated to- 

 be scattered over the country. 



Those on the hills are usually termed Samang, and are woolly headed; 

 those on the plain, Orang benua, or people belonging to the country ; the 

 Word benua being applied by the Malays to any extensive country, as 

 benua China, benua Keling: but it appears to be only a sort of Malay plural 

 to the Arabic word ben or beni, signifying a tribe. The early adventurers 

 from Arabia frequently make mention in their writings of the different 

 tribes they met with to the eastward, and from them most probably the 

 Malays have adopted the term Orang benua.. 



I had an opportunity of seeing two of these people from a tribe in the 

 neighbourhood of Maldca; it consisted of about sixty people, and the tribe 

 was called Jdkdng. These people, from their occasional intercourse- with 

 the villages dependent on Maldca, speak the Maldyu language sufficiently 

 to be generally understood. They relate that there are two other tribes, 

 the Orang benua and the Orang XJddi. The former appear the most in- 

 teresting as composing the majority ; the latter is only another name for 

 the Samang, or Cajfries, 



