1838. J 



Sketch of the Malayan Peninsula. 



63 



shooting game with poisoned arrows. Of these the natives enumerate 

 several, viz. the Semangs, Sakkye or Orang BuJcit, men of the hills ; 

 the Udai Jacoons, or Rayet Ulan, denizens of the woods ; and the 

 Halas. The Semajig and Sakkye are met with in Quedah and Perak^ 

 the Jacoons are found scattered over the rest of the interior. If credit 

 be allowed to native information, the Halas are a tattooed race, 

 dwelling in the fastnesses of Perak. The Sem.ang and Udai are said to 

 resemble the Papuan in colour, features and hair, but, I must say, 

 in all the tribes of these aborigines that have fallen under my 

 notice, I have never met with the peculiar features that stamp the 

 negro of Papua. The Jacoons do not differ materially from the 

 Malay in colour or physiognomy, but struck me as being slightly 

 lower in stature.* Many well informecl natives corroborate my belief 

 that most of the present race of Malays, that at this day inhabit the 

 peninsula,are the descendants of Jacoon females, and the early colonists 

 from Sumatra, with a subsequent sprinkling of Arab blood. The differ- 

 ent tribes are sometimes generalized under the term of Orang Benna, 

 men of the soil. None of them possess any written records ; nor am I 

 aware that they know the use of letters, with the exception of the 

 ^Seman^^ of Pe?'a^, who, the natives assure me, write on the leaves of 

 \ht stebhal. Some of a tribe from Salangore, who visited me at the 

 mouth of the Lingie river, sang rude songs, and had along with their 

 usual paraphernalia of blow-pipes, or Sumpitans, and poisoned arrows* 

 a rude species of flute constructed of the Appa bambu. Their songs 

 run in measured slocas, and, though wild, are characterized by a pleas- 

 ing and artless melody. The tribes frequenting Rumhowe and the Ma- 

 lacca frontier are somewhat more civilized, many of them have been 

 converted to Islam and blended with the Malays ; from whom, when 

 similarly dressed, they are scarcely distinguishable. The language of 

 the various tribes slightly differs ; but the whole, that I have had an 

 opportunity of examining, bears an affinity to the purely Malayan. 

 The Malays are supposed to be of the Tartar stock, both their features 

 and those of the aborigines in the native states around Malacca are 

 decidedly characterized by the Mongol stamp. To the philologist may 

 I suggest a comparative examination of the language of the older Tar- 

 tar hordes and the dialects of these nomadic tribes ? Tlie Malay lan- 

 guage is well known to be a mixture of Pracrit or Sanscrit, Arabic, and 

 a language, which I partly coincide with Mr. Crawfurd in calling Poly- 



* See J\''ote on the Jacoons at the cntl of this paper. —Edilor, 



