2 
FASCICULI MALATENSES 
Those tribes 1 which we have called Sernang appear to be negritoid, and 
to be, on the whole, of fairly pure stock ; their complexion is dark, their hair 
frizzly or woolly, and they are always, so far as we can say, pure nomads— 
though often within a limited area—practising no form of agriculture. The 
Sakais, on the other hand, are as a rule fairer in complexion ; the hair of in¬ 
dividuals may be like that of a Sernang, but, if a number of persons belonging 
to one tribe be examined, some members of it will be found to have wavy, or 
even straight, hair. The majority of the Sakai tribes have reached a certain 
level of culture—building houses and planting grain and vegetables. Speaking 
generally, the Sakais are hillmen, and the Semangs live in the plains. 
With regard to the geographical distribution of the Semangs it is difficult 
to dogmatize. Their southern boundary, in Perak, is practically the Perak 
River, though they certainly do cross to the opposite bank occasionally. North¬ 
wards, on this side of the Peninsula, they do not appear to have been recorded 
north of Kedah, though, undoubtedly, they occur in the state of Trang. 
Mr, A. Steffen, who has resided for some years in that state as engineer in 
the service of the Siamese government, and has had exceptional opportunities 
of observing the people of the country, told me (N. A.) that he has met members 
of a wild tribe, answering in all respects to my description of the SemAn, at Ban 
Chong-—a village at the base of the range of mountains that separates Trang 
from Patalung. On the eastern side of the Malay Peninsula, the Semangs 
are found at least as far south as the state of Pahang, but, probably, no 
further. To the north, they occur m Patalung, 1 where there is, probably, a 
very marked Sernang element in the Siamese population ; while we were told 
by a well-educated Bangkok Siamese, who had travelled extensively in Lower 
Siam, that he had met dark, curly-haired jungle tribes in the state of Ligor, 
or Nakon Sitamarat. 
The Sakais, on the other hand, do not extend more than twenty miles 
north of the Perak river, on the western side of the Peninsula. In part, at 
least, the wild tribes of the state of Selangor are Sakais, but those of Malacca 
and Jchore appear to be primitive Malays. On the eastern slope of the main 
range, there are Sakais north of the Pahang river : but they do not appear to 
extend into the states of Trengganu and Kelantan, and there is no evidence 
whatever that they have ever existed in any part of the old kingdom of 
Pa tan i. 
i, C.f, The definition of Sernang and Sakai or Alin* tribe* given bjr G, W. Earl, The Native Ram <if 
the Indian Arckifxfogtt t Papuatts t p. 151, London, 1S53. 
z. Ref>$rt Brit. Atsoc., 1900, p. 394. 
