12 
outwardly Siamese in feeling and religion ; but as to language they are m 
mucli Malay as Siamcsrj being true bi-lingnists. In their traditions and 
customs, the Sam-Sam mostly follow their Siamese aneestry. 
The main part of the Peninsula, below about 7° of North latitude, 
may be regarded as essentially Malayan. It is scurcel}* possible that the 
Malays t-ati he really indigenous in the Peninsula ; Imt whether they were 
origifialty intruders from Sumatra, or Java, or tiie ucigid)Ouring Archipc- 
\n^i} of IVWf h a cjuestiuu still discussed by ethnologists. It seems most 
probable that the Malay stock, which orif^imdly peopled the kingdoms of 
Singajtorc atul Malacca, ami overspread the East and West coasts, came 
northward t'nfm the South of Sumatra ( Palembang;) by way of the Lingga 
and Kio Archipelagoc's. It is certain that, within recent times, there has 
also been a steady flow of immigrantSj subsequent to and independent 
of this earlier (me, from a populous plain in the billy country to the 
North of Sumatra, called Monangkabau, This immigration, across 
tlie narrowest portion of the Straits, has been chiefly directed towards 
Rcmbau^ and the otlicr small States to the interior of Malacca. 
The whole of the mountain regions, all down the centre of the Penin- 
aula, are and it may be supposed nave always been occupied, not by the 
civilisetl Mahiy, who keeps to the coast and to the larger rirei's, but by 
wOd tribes of Orang BCnila, or men of the soil**— called, to the North 
of the Pivcr Pt-rak, Sl^t/ianf/ ; and to the South, Sakei; and by a variety 
of other names in other parts. 1 btir origin can only be conjectured ,* 
but throughout the country, and especially in the South, their type is 
now casentialiy Malayan, and they differ from the Malay in religion 
and customs rather than in blood or language. They have, in fact, been 
described as " Malays unconverted to Islam but those who have moat 
carefully studied the cpiestion of their origin consider this description 
to be, ethnologically speaking, inadequate. The scientific traveller 
Mikluho-Maclay speaks with the authority belonging to the only Euro- 
pean, it is believed, who haa lived among the various tribes in all their 
principal resoits, lie travelled from South to North of the Peninsula 
during 1874-5 ; and his general view of these aborigines is expressed in 
the following note. The careful philological enquiries of Mr. J. Logan 
before that date, and the comparison of various vocabulancs since col- 
lected by the Straits Asiatic Society, appear to supjjort his opinion, so 
far, at any rate, aa concerns a common pre-Malayan language * ; — ^ 
" \>if. (There is a) connection between the varioua tribes of the Orang 
" Sakei, living quite cut off from one another, in Pahang, K^lantan and 
" Senggora 
2nd. Some relation in point of language between the very mis:ed 
" and distant -dwelling Orang t^tan of Johor with the Orang Sslkei in 
the North of the Peninsula : — 
"It is undoubtedly an interesting result to have ascertained that 
* TtiiH p&psage IB qtiotied from Joumal Xo. I, p. 43, of tha Straits ^Biatio Soolotj. 
Tlie otber referenoea here made are LoGJLN's JounuH Volu. I tmd IJ, vid StxAit:^ 
X^SiUa Society'! Jouruale, No«. 4-6, 
