489 
FIVE DAYS IN NANING, 
FOURTH DkY. 
_ * _ # 
[Fourth day, Friday YMh February .] 
In the morning some of the Besisi amused themselves with 
making a bulu perrindu, and others went out with some of 
the Malays to hunt wild hogs. They returned carrying a 
large sow which one of the Malays had shot. 
In the course of the forenoon they became listless and final¬ 
ly sullen. The strain upon their minds and the restraint had 
become too irksome to be borne longer, and they asked permis¬ 
sion to return to their houses. 
I shall here add a few more remarks respecting them. A 
careful comparison of them with the Malays around me con¬ 
firmed my first impression, and the following is the conclusion 
at which I arrived, as written down in my note book after they 
left . 
There is a general resemblance between the Besisi and the 
Malays, and many of the latter here in form and features, do 
not differ from the former. The grand distinctive characters 
are the expression and manner, which in the Besisi indicate 
a rustic simplicity. The Malay has a wide range of ideas, a 
complexity of prejudices, and refinements, much tact, and, in a 
word, is a man of the world. All this is wanting in the Besisi. 
The expression of the eye, when they are in their ordinary 
state of good humour, is soft, confiding and distinguished by 
a liquid lustre from that of the Malay. The only appreciable 
physical peculiarities seemed to be that the corners of their 
lips were more square, and the feet very pliant in front ss if 
they had an additional joint, the toes not turned out like those 
of the Malay, and perhaps more spreading The Bugis fea¬ 
tures often approximate more to theirs than the Malay. They 
cannot keep their attention long directed to any one thing, 
and in this, as in some other traits of disposition, resemb[e 
children. The tones in speaking have a character similar to 
the Malay voice. One of the women had a soft and sweet 
voice, and when I managed to engage one of them in conver¬ 
sation her voice was scarcely distinguishable in its tones and 
expression from that of a Naming woman with whom I had been 
talking. Many of the Malays habitually, and most of them 
occasionally, indulged in long drawn vowels like the Besisi, 
and the manner and tone of the Naning women, as we passed 
their cottages, in pronouncing the last word of the usual ques¬ 
tion “Tuan pergi Kamano—o—o ?” was the same as that of 
