344* remarks on the sletar and sabimba tribes 
dieir minds, that I took the greatest care to find a slight image of 
the deity within the chaos of their thoughts, even however degraded 
such might be, but was disappointed. They neither know the God 
nor Devil of the Christian or Mahomedan, though they confessed they 
had been told of such, nor any of the demigods of Hindoo mytholo¬ 
gy, many of whom were recounted to them. In the three great 
epochs of their individual lives, we consequently find no rites or ce¬ 
remonies enacted; at birth the child is only welcomed to the world 
by the mother’s joy ; at marriage, a mouth full of tobacco and one 
ehupah of rice handed to the mother, confirm the hymeneal tye. At 
death the deceased are wrapped in their garments, and committed 
to the parent earth. “ The women weep a little, then leave the spot” 
were the words of our simple narrator. Of purls, dewas, mambangs 
and other light spirits that haunt each mountain, rock, and tree in 
the Malayan conception, they did not know the name,—nor had 
they any thing to be afraid of, as they themselves said, than the “ Gal¬ 
ling Pirates,” who are men like themselves. With'this I was forced 
to be contented, and teazed them no more about the subject. They 
do not practice circumcision, nor other Mahomedan customs. Their 
women intermarry with the Malays which appears to be not unfre¬ 
quent, they also give their women to Chinese, and an old woman told 
us of her having been united to individuals of both nations, in an ear¬ 
ly period of her life. It was further related to me, that many years 
ago, when they had a Malay as their Batin, nearly all the men now 
of their tribe were induced to undergo the rite of circumcision, though 
such a practice is not comformed with. Their tribe though con¬ 
fining their range within the limits of 30 miles square, may still he 
considered of a very wandering kind; in their sampans barely suffiei - 
cient to float their load they skirt the mangroves, collecting their 
food from the shores and forests as they proceed exhausting one spot 
and then searching for another. To one accustomed to the comforts 
and artificial wants of a civilized life, theirs as a contrast appears 
to be extreme; huddled up in a small boat hardly measuring 20 feet 
in length, they find all the domestic comfort that they are in want 
of; at one end is seen the fire-place, in the middle are the few uten- 
