A TRANSLATION OP THE KEDDAH ANNALS. 21 
population of Keddah called Samsam is derived from that tribe. 
The Samsam use as their native tongue the Siamese language- 
follow Siamese customs, and are, excepting where not converted to 
Islamism, Buddhists. They seem to have mixed with the colonists 
from the west, and approximate now more in stature and colour 
to the Malay, than to the true Siamese. Many families of Sam- 
sams are living under British rule in Province Wellesley and prove 
to be a quiet and, as compared with Malays, an industrious 
people. They have orchards and rice fields—and they hunt the 
deer and wild hog for food , with dogs, using nets and spears. 
These dogs are small but active and bold creatures. 
They generally bring the boar to bay, when the hunters kill him 
with their spears. But I have seen both men and dogs very badly 
wounded during such an encounter. 
That the Girg&ssi were Siamese, or cognate to them, appears 
probable also from the names, according to our author, of some 
of their chiefs Such are Phra Chibon,—Nang, Suttaman— 
Parap—Nang Meri. These names I believe have been derived 
from the Pali—a language to which the Simese have been indebt¬ 
ed for most, if not all, of their words applied to religion, politics, 
law, learning and science, and proving their rude condition when 
that language was introduced amongst them. 
I may here notice that in the Katha Wongsa, a Bali work, which 
I procured from the Siamese, Buddha is said to have commenced 
hss wanderings by proceeding from India to Ceylon or Lanka 
Singhon as the Siamese term the latter, the Bali Singhala or Sihala 
Thippe (Dwip), in order to expel—it should I apprehend heve been 
«* to teach f —the Yakshas who held dominion there. This expulsion 
was not in accordance with the humane disposition of Buddha, unless 
he really believed them to be evil spirits or demons, and he ought 
to have known the contrary if he possessed the prescience attributed 
to him by his followers. In the Mahawanso [ T ] the Buddhists have 
tried to make the act appear a humane one—by assuring us that 
the Yakkhos were demons, or rather that the inhabitants of Lanka 
were Yakkhos (or demons). Buddha “ caused the delightful Isle 
of Giri to approach for them and as soon as they had transferred 
themselves thereto [to escape the conflagration he had raised] he 
restored it to its former position.” But the Yakkhos and Yakkhini 
appear from the seventh chapter of the Mahawanso to have fully 
occupied the Island after Buddha had gone back to India. Mr 
Tumour remarks on this subject [ 3 ] “ It would appear that the 
prevailing religion at that period (the arrival of Vijayo) was 
the demon or Yakkha worship. Buddhists have therefore thought 
proper to represent that the inhabitants (of Ceylon) were Yakkhos, 
or demons themselves, and possessed supernatural powers.” 
The descendants of these Yakkhos were looked upon by the 
Tumour’s Transl : of Mahawanso t. i c. i p. 3rd & do. c, vii p. 48. 
[ 2 ] Introduce : to Mahawanso v. i p, xlv. 
