6? 
PART III. THE MALAYS OF PERAK 
(Plate XV, figs. 2-5) 
D URING our stay in South Perak, by far the greater part of the time 
that we were able to devote to Anthropology was spent in studying 
the Mai Darat. Contact with occidental civilization for a period of 
nearly twenty years, has rendered the South Perak Malay shy of ridicule and 
reluctant to discuss himself, or his manners and customs, with white men with 
whom he is unacquainted. In this direction, therefore, our work was limited 
to recording the outward characteristics of the race, and obtaining a series of 
physical observations and of statistics, that might prove useful for purposes of 
comparison with the other races with whom we came in contact. 
In Central Perak, Annandale spent a few days in Kuala Kangsar, the 
residence of the Sultan, where the most typical of the Perak Malays are pro- 
bably to be found, and was successful in obtaining a series of photographs, 
while in Upper Perak he also measured some twenty adult males. By a 
deplorable accident definite notes regarding this series are lost ; but they showed 
that in general characters the Malays of Upper Perak assimilate to the East 
Coast type, to be hereafter described, rather than to the Kuala Kangsar and 
Batang Padang people, differing, however, in certain respects from both. 
In crossing the Peninsula from Senggora on the East Coast, to Alor Stah, 
the capital of Kedah on the West, we were much struck by the change of type 
that was to be noticed among the inhabitants as we approached the latter town. 
Speaking generally, the Malay or Siamese of the Patani States or Senggora is 
a stoutly built individual, with thick-set limbs and a broad, almost ‘ moon- 
shaped,’ face. In this part of Kedah, on the other hand, and in South and 
Central Perak, the prevalent type is slighter in physique, with more delicately 
formed limbs and clearer-cut features ; the face is usually not so flat and is 
more oval in contour. Individuals of either type, however, are quite common 
in the particular habitat of the other, and, at least so far as our experience goes, 
it is almost impossible to judge with certainty the native state of any individual 
Peninsular Malay, though with practice a fair measure of accuracy may be 
attained. 
