INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES, KNOWLEDGE. 251 
there are three sounds which are at once to he distinguished with 
some attention, viz., the diapason, the third and the liftit. Some 
authors speak of a kind of violin and of a rude flute used by the Jakuns. 
I have never seen these instruments, but I know that they use two 
kinds of drum like those of the Malays. The Jakuns know the Eu¬ 
ropeans by report only, the greater number of them having never 
seen any European, On account of the great number of Chinese 
emigrants, who inhabit the Peninsula, few of them are unaware of 
the existence of China; they are told too of Bengal, of Sumatra, 
and of Siam ; these are the boundaries of their knowledge in geo¬ 
graphy. Their science in astronomy is yet more limited ; they see 
the sun rise and set every day; that the moon sometimes appears, 
sometimes not; they use their light when present, they sleep when 
it is dark ; but they have never noticed or inquired about the course 
of the stars: they scarcely know how many days are in the duration 
of a moon, and how many moons in the year, they are not at all a- 
ware of their age, nor of that of their children; such observations 
or remarks appear to them mere superfluities as being not required 
in their way of living,* An ignorance of such matters amongst sa¬ 
vages is not surprising when I mention that the Malays themselves 
who live in the interior of the Peninsula are not aware of all these 
things, and that on these subjects many of them are no better inform¬ 
ed than Jakuns. A thing in which the Jakuns (only those of the 
Menangkabau states) are truly skilled, is the art of using the Sum- 
pifcan and poisoned arrows; as I will have occasion to mention when 
speaking of their weapons. They have no knowledge of writing nor 
do they make use of any symbolical signs. The language spoken by 
the three classes of Jakuns I describe is not entirely the same, but 
the difference is not considerable, and I think that it consists in the 
intonation and the pronunciation, but chiefly in the inflection upon 
the termination, more than in the words themselves; which are the 
same except a very small number. The Malays say that the Jakuns 
speak a low Malayan language; but in my opinion, I would think 
* See vol. i. p. 283, 
