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THE BINUA OF JOHOltE * 
The Country of the Binua. —This people occupy all the interi¬ 
or of Johore properly so called, or that portion of the ancient kingdom 
of that name over which the Tamdngong now exercises the rights of roy¬ 
alty. They also possess the interior of the most southerly portion of 
Pahang. The most definite description of their territory however is, 
that they occupy the upper branches of the last or most southern sys¬ 
tem of rivers in the Malay Peninsula, that is of the rivers Johore (the 
Lingfii and the Sayong) Bindt, Pontfan, Batu Pahat or Rio Formosa 
(the Simpang Kiri, Pau, and Simrong with their numerous affluents) 
and Indau (the Anak Indau, Simrong and Made), with the country wa¬ 
tered by them. By means of these rivers a constant communication 
is maintained between the families of the Binua on the two sides of 
the Peninsula. It has already been noticed that the Indau and its 
branches are directly connected with the Batu Pahat and its branches 
by the Simrong. The other principal branch of the Batu Pahat, the 
Pau, is connected with the Slabin, a branch of the Indau, by a path of 
only one day’s journey. Paths lead from the Made and the Simrong 
to the Lingfu, thus connecting the Johore with the eastern rivers, 
while it is still more closely united to the western by its other branch, 
the Sayong, which rises in the same low hill from which the Binut 
issues. I found no Binua on the river Johore below the junction of 
the Sayong and Lingfu. There are none on the Pulaf; and the ab¬ 
original families on the Tamrao and Sakodai, which fall into the old 
Straits of Singapore, (Orang Sabimba) were recently imported 
by the Tamdngong from the island of Battamto the south of Singa¬ 
pore, for the purpose of collecting taban (Gittah Percha.) The 
river nomades (Biduanda Kallang or Orang Suetar) and the 
sea nomades (Orang Tambusa, termed also Orang Laut and 
Ryat Laut, people of the sea, Sec., who lurk about the estuaries 
and creeks of the Johore, Libbam, and other rivers along the 
southern coast of the Peninsula are distinct from the Binua, and 
cut off from all communication with them. What is remarkable, 
the Binua have never been known on the upper part of the Sfdflf 
although it has its source in the same mountains where the Johore 
* This is not a very legitimate use of th« word Binua,—“ orang Binua” 
literally meaning the people of the country. It did not appear from the en¬ 
quiries which I madeinmany places,thattheyever had any distinctive name. 
The Malays term them “ orang utan” men of the forest, u orang darat liar” 
wild men of the interior, &c., ephithets which they consider offensive , and 
the Malays generally address them as w orang ulu” people of the interior, or 
rather of the upper part of the river. 
