332 
REPORT ON THE ISLAND OF BANKA. 
train the enterprise of the pukats, for which purpose his own vessels 
and the prows of his Ray ads are particularly adapted. 
The inhabitants of the interior of Banka, who are commonly call¬ 
ed mountain-people , Orang Ginning, belong to the Malay race,* but 
they are far behind the Malays of the surrounding countries in an 
approach to civilization. Their particular derivation cannot he trac¬ 
ed : they have, in ancient periods had no intercourse with Europeans, 
and very little with the neighbouring Malays. About the period of 
the settlement of Minto, they embraced partially the Mahomedan 
religion; some of them are still Cafirs or infidels. They speak the 
Majay language somewhat adulterated by words peculiar to them¬ 
selves or derived from the Javanese language. They are distin¬ 
guished in Banka according to the territories they occupy, but have 
no concerted government. In each district there is a person known 
by the title of Satin , who is considered as the chief, though he 
possesses nothing to support authority. There is no hereditary 
prince or chief whose influence extends over the whole or over a 
considerable portion of the island, similar to that of other oriental 
princes. The office of Batin is of the patriarchal kind, he is look¬ 
ed up to as the bond of society who possesses the general confidence, 
and his counsel is expected, more than his assistance, in cases of 
difficulty. The title generally descends from father to son, but the 
succession is always regulated by the approbation of all the Matta- 
gawes of a district, a name which designates those persons who be- 
* They appear to be the same race with the various tribes of Binua inha¬ 
biting the interior of the southern part of the Malay Peninsula. Mr. Wili¬ 
er, who resided for five years in the country of the Battas, informs us that 
in all the most mountainous parts of Sumatra a comparatively rude people, 
called Orang Lubu , wander, who so much resemble the Binua of Johore as 
described in this Journal (vol, I. p. 242} that he has no doubt they are the 
same race. They speak the Malay language in a rude form. We have long 
doubted the descent of all the Peninsular Malays from the proper Menang- 
kabau people, and anticipated that further research would discover the rem¬ 
nants of aboriginal Malayan tribes in Sumatra to whom we might refer the 
origin both of the Menangkabaus and of other branches. A further ac¬ 
quaintance with the Orang Lubu would probably afford an answer to the 
question whether they or the Binua of the Peninsula are the parent tribes. 
Believing that we can connect the Binua with more northern continental 
people, we must, in the mean time, consider it probable that the Orang 
Lubu are offshoots from them. Ed. 
