( 14 ) 
association with the jungle animals to whom they 
are supposed to be akin. In some parts of the 
country, notably in Negri Sembilan, there has been 
a good deal of fusion between Malays and aborigines 
in times past, and this probably is still going on to 
some extent in more out-of-the-way districts — Malay 
men marrying aboriginal women, rather than the 
reverse. 
As far as the fragmentary history of the Penin- 
sula can show us, the first Malay settlers came from 
the once powerful kingdom of Palembang which, in 
A.D. 1250, according to a Chinese traveller, claimed 
suzerainty over Kedah, Trengganu, Pahang, Kelan- 
tan and Ceylon. Singapore was a colony from 
Palembang, founded somewhere between 1200 A.D. 
and 1350 A.D. Both the mother state and the colony 
perished at the hands of the Javanese in 1377 A.D*. 
An influx of fresh immigrants from the Menang- 
kabau country of Sumatra, who had matriarchal 
customs as opposed to the father-right customs of 
the other Malays of the Peninsula, gave rise, after 
some fusion with parts of the aboriginal population, 
to the still matriarchal states of Negri Sembilan — 
the nine countries. 
Through the writings of early Chinese and Arab 
travellers, the records of embassies sent from China 
and inscriptions found in Java, Sumatra, South India 
and in Ligor in Peninsular Siam, we know a little 
about the early story of the Peninsula, but though 
it is possible that fresh sources of information, 
chiefly inscriptions, may be discovered, yet much 
must remain shrouded in the mists of the past. 
To my mind, one of the problems which we have 
to face is: was the whole of the “ Malay ” population 
Wilkinson's A History of the Peninsular Malays. 
