10 
FASCICULI MALATENSES 
and not infrequently marry Malay women ; while the taking of Semang 
or Sakai concubines by Malay men is, or was until lately, even more common. 
In spite of this fact, it is improbable on historical grounds that there is 
any more than casual admixture of Malay blood in the Semin, as it would not 
be worth the while of Malays fleeing from justice or enmity to join a tribe 
largely under Malay control If a Malay wishes to take a Semang concubine, 
he prefers to make an arrangement by which he can bring her to live in his 
village, as, however good a jungle-man he may be, he always dislikes the dis¬ 
comfort of living in the jungle. There is reason to believe that the SemAn 
are less scrupulous about making arrangements of the kind than the Sakais. 
On the other hand, it cannot be doubted that there is a small admixture of 
Sakai blood in the SemAn, as they told me that occasionally, though rarely, 
their young men took wives from the Sakai Bukit (Hill Sakais), with whom they 
barter urat batu and other products of the plains for bamboos, out of which 
they make their blowguns. The Sakai Bukit or Po-Klo, however, are very 
nearly related to the Semang stock. 
The mean height of twenty adult male Seman was 1,528 mm., almost 
exactly that of the Sakais of Batang Padang ; the height of two women 
was 1,427 and 1,453* The figures of the men were slight, but not emaciated ; 
the women appeared better nourished. In the men the breasts were rather 
prominent, but this was not the case in so marked a degree as amongthe Sakai 
men, who were often stouter ; the breasts of the women were firm and 
shapely, not pendulous or flaccid. The tendency to protuberance of the 
abdomen was only slight. Hair was often absent from the bodies of the men, 
except on the pubes, where it was fairly abundant, but in some cases the outer 
surface of the thighs was covered with fine curly hairs, each of which curled 
independently of the others. The naturally scanty beard and moustache were 
removed with tweezers* The body hair was of the same shade of black as 
that of the head. The reddish tinge characteristic of Sakai hair did not seem 
to me to be so strongly marked among the SemAn. The character of the hair 
was more constant among the members of this tribe than among those of any 
other jungle tribe that we saw. Without a single exception, it was decidedly 
frizzly or almost woolly, though in the majority of instances the way in which 
it had been treated somewhat disguised its true character. The individual 
hairs were rather fine, but apparently coarser than in the case of the Hand. 
The nose was invariably negroid in outline, with broad alae ; but the absence of 
bridge was seldom so conspicuous as in certain individuals among the Sakais 
of South Perak. The lips were thick, never everted ; and prognathism, 
though generally present, was never excessive. The epicanthus was absent 
