346* REMARKS ON THE SLETAR ANI> SABIMBA TRIBES 
find no trace, bat before much can be said on this subject great cau¬ 
tion must be used, as is well known to those who have to sift evidence, 
from wild, ignorant and indolent tribes, and who alone can estimate 
the difficulty of gaining a correct notion of the peculiarities of their 
ideas on such points. It is therefore to ethnographical enquiry that we 
may expect to be indebted for any slight glimpses of this interesting 
topic. As I before stated they speak the language of the Malays 
with much less a degree of difference in pronunciation, than may be 
found in stepping from one county in England to another. They 
may therefore be said' with little fear of contradiction to be merely 
unconverted Malays in the general acceptation of the term, though a 
distinct class from the Malays properly so. called, who poured their 
hordes over the Archipelago* prior to 1200 of the Christian era from 
the great river Malayoo in Sumatra. While all the tribes of Malays 
on the coast of the Malayan Peninsula, and adjoining islands have 
embraced the tenets of Mahomed, they have remained unaffected by 
the movement. The nomehelature of individuals, remains the same 
as when Hindoeism held sway over the Archipelago, and we find 
in their proper names an astonishing degree of similarity to the 
names of Malayan heroes prior to the conversion of the race as men¬ 
tioned in the Sijarah Malayu and other works. j~ As a list of proper 
names will be interesting, the following is a small collection. 
. * , - 
Males. 
Kissah 
Dosan 
Kadang 
Penis 
Singal 
Kosari 
Kassap 
Masei 
A w in 
Desari 
Nassap 
Nosan 
Sadang 
Soning 
Females. 
Nongei 
Sookang 
Boon teh 
"■ 1 ■' \ 
Neekang 
Sang Kang 
Tnipang 
In physiognomy they are closely allied to the “ Biduanda Kallang 1 
noticed in your paper on that tribe. This coupled with the fact that 
the Sl&ar and Kallang are both creeks of the island of Singapore, 
the original locality of each, and that sampans can approach the na- 
* Query ? Eo. 
t ? Ep. 
