THE RELATION OP THE MALAYS TO THE MINT IRA. 329^ 
Rau and Ara, lying immediately to the north of Menangabau, and ne- 
netrated by tlie large, and scarcely navigable, river Rakan. They are 
distinguished for their trading character, and, as traders and settlers, 
they have for a long period, but particularly duri ng the last twenty or * 
thirty years, annually repaired to the Peninsula opposite, sometimes 
by way of the Rakan, but more generally by the River Sink. They 
are bold, persevering, and penurious, qualities which have long 
enabled them to engross the principal internal traffic between 
Malacca and Pahang. They always go well armed, but the chief 
source of their strength is their social spirit, which leads them to 
make common cause against those who have injured any of their nation. 
They are now settled in considerable numbers in Rambau, Sungi 
Ujong and the western part of Pahang, and their numbers and pow¬ 
er yearly increase, and become more formidable. About seven 
months ago, hands of them, under Bata Bidohom, an invulnerable 
man, attacked the Mintira in different places, killed many of the men 
and carried away more than a hundred of their women and girls into 
Pahang, where they sold them as slaves. The Rawa declared that 
they would hunt down the Mintira every where, and deal with them 
all in the same way, in consequence of which the greater number 
have left their houses and are now scattered far and near. Several 
parties have come within the British boundary. 
In a series of papers illustrative of the Malays, which wall appear 
in the Journal, the consideration of tlieir earlier relations to the ab¬ 
origines will be entered upon more advantageously. Here I only 
remark, with reference to the incantations, charms, and other super¬ 
stitions of the Mintira, that the greater part appear to be essentially 
native,*—that is, they have not been borrowed from the Hindus or 
Arabs, but have assumed their peculiar form from the state in'which 
the tribe has existed on the Peninsula from time immemorial, while, in 
substance, they have been transmitted directly from the same com¬ 
mon source to which a large part of the inhabited world must refer 
Its earliest superstitions. The religion of the M intira is the Primitive 
* The Arabic portions haye been added or substituted by Malays. • 
