Chapter XVI: Part 16

The tin occurs in the form of cassiterite, and is found chiefly in or
near the crystalline rocks, especially the granite. As stream tin it
occurs abundantly in some of the alluvial deposits derived from the
crystalline area, especially on the west coast. Only two tin lodes are
worked, however, and both are situated on the east coast, the one at
Kuantan in Pahang, the other at Bandi in Trengganu territory. On the
west coast no true lode has yet been discovered, though the vast
alluvial deposits of tin found there seem to make such a discovery
probable in the future. Since 1890 the tin produced from these
alluvial beds has supplied between 50% and 75% of the tin of the
world. Gold is worked with success in Pahang, and has been exploited
from time immemorial by the natives of that state and of Kelantan.
Small quantities have also been found on the western slope in Perak.

_Climate, &c._--It was formerly the custom to speak of the Malay
Peninsula as an unhealthy climate, and even to compare it with the
west coast of Africa. It is now generally admitted, however, that,
though hot, it compares favourably with that of Burma. The chief
complaint which Europeans make concerning it is the extreme humidity,
which causes the heat to be more oppressive than is the case where the
air is dry. On the other hand, the thermometer, even at Singapore on
the southern coast, which is the hottest portion of the peninsula,
seldom rises above 98° in the shade, whereas the mean for the year at
that place is generally below 80°. On the mainland, and more
especially on the eastern slope, the temperature is cooler, the
thermometer seldom rising above 93° in the shade, and falling at night
below 70°. On an average day in this part of the peninsula the
temperature in a European house ranged from 88° to 68°. The number of
rainy days throughout the peninsula varies from 160 to over 200 in
each year, but violent gusts of wind, called "Sumatras," accompanied
by a heavy downpour of short duration, are more common than persistent
rain. The rainfall on the west coast varies from 75 to 120 in. per
annum, and that of the east coast, where the north-east monsoon breaks
with all its fury, is usually about 155 in. per annum. Malarial fevers
make their appearance in places where the forest has been recently
felled, or where the surface earth has been disturbed. It is noticed
that labourers employed in deep mines worked by shafts suffer less
from fever than do those who are engaged in stripping the alluvial
deposits. This, of course, means that a new station, where clearing,
digging, and building are in progress, is often unhealthy for a time,
and to this must be attributed the evil reputation which the peninsula
formerly enjoyed. To Europeans the climate is found to be relaxing and
enervating, but if, in spite of some disinclination for exertion,
regular exercise is taken from the beginning, and ordinary precautions
against chills, more especially to the stomach, are adopted, a
European has almost as good a chance of remaining in good health in
the peninsula as in Europe. A change of climate, however, is
imperatively necessary every five or six years, and the children of
European parents should not be kept in the peninsula after they have
attained the age of four or five years. The Chinese immigrants suffer
chiefly from fever of a malarial type, from beri-beri, a species of
tropical dropsy, and from dysentery. The Malays formerly suffered
severely from smallpox epidemics, but in the portion of the peninsula
under British rule vaccination has been introduced, and the ravages of
the disease no longer assume serious dimensions. Occasional outbreaks
of cholera occur from time to time, and in the independent states
these cause terrible loss of life, as the natives fly from the disease
and spread the infection in every direction. As a whole, the Malays
are, however, a remarkably healthy people, and deformity and
hereditary diseases are rare among them. There is little leprosy in
the peninsula, but there is a leper hospital near Penang on Pula
Deraja and another on an island on the west coast for the reception of
lepers from the Federated Malay States.

_Flora and Fauna._--The soil of the peninsula is remarkably fertile
both in the plains and on the mountain slopes. In the vast forests the
decay of vegetable matter during countless ages has enriched the soil
to the depth of many feet, and from it springs the most marvellous
tangle of huge trees, shrubs, bushes, underwood, creepers, climbing
plants and trailing vines, the whole hung with ferns, mosses, and
parasitic growths, and bound together by rattans and huge rope-like
trailers. In most places the jungle is so dense that it is impossible
to force a way through it without the aid of a wood-knife, and even
the wild beasts use well-worn game-tracks through the forest. In the
interior brakes of bamboos are found, many of which spread for miles
along the river banks. Good hard-wood timber is found in plenty, the
best being the _merabau_, _penak_, _rasok_ and _chengal_. Orchids of
countless varieties abound. The principal fruit trees are the
_duri-an_, mangosteen, custard-apple, pomegranate, _rambut-an_,
_pulas-an_, _langsat_, _rambai_, jack-fruit, coco-nut, areca-nut,
sugar-palm, and banana. Coffee, tobacco, sugar-cane, rice, pepper,
gambier, cotton and sago are cultivated with success. Great
developments have been made of recent years in the cultivation of
rubber in British Malaya. The principal jungle products are gutta and
rubber of several varieties, and many kinds of rattan. The mangrove
grows on the shores of the west coast in profusion. Agilawood, the
camphor tree, and ebony are also found in smaller quantities.

The fauna of the peninsula is varied and no less profuse than is the
vegetable life. The Asiatic elephant; the _seladang_, a bison of a
larger type than the Indian gaur; two varieties of rhinoceros; the
honey bear (_bruang_), the tapir, the sambhur (_rusa_); the speckled
deer (_kijang_), three varieties of mouse-deer (_napoh_, _plandok_ and
_kanchil_); the gibbon (_ungka_ or _wawa'_), the _siamang_, another
species of anthropoid ape, the _brok_ or coco-nut monkey, so called
because it is trained by the Malays to gather the nuts from the
coco-nut trees, the _lotong_, _kra_, and at least twenty other kinds
of monkey; the _binturong_ (_arctictis binturong_), the lemur; the
Asiatic tiger, the black panther, the leopard, the large wild cat
(_harimau akar_), several varieties of jungle cat; the wild boar, the
wild dog; the flying squirrel, the flying fox; the python, the cobra,
and many other varieties of snake, including the hamadryad; the
alligator, the otter and the gavial, as well as countless kinds of
squirrel, rat, &c., are found throughout the jungles of the peninsula
in great numbers. On the east coast peafowl are found, and throughout
the interior the argus pheasant, the firebacked pheasant, the blue
partridge, the adjutant-bird, several kinds of heron and crane, duck,
teal, cotton-teal, snipe, wood-pigeon, green-pigeon of several
varieties, swifts, swallows, pied-robins, hornbills, parakeets,
fly-catchers, nightjars, and many other kinds of bird are met with
frequently. A few specimens of solitary goose have been procured, but
the bird is rarely met with. The forests literally swarm with insects
of all kinds, from _cicadae_ to beautiful butterflies, and from stick-
and leaf-insects to endless varieties of ants. The scorpion and the
centipede are both common. The study of the insect life of the
peninsula opens a splendid field for scientific research, and the
profusion and variety of insects found in these forests probably
surpass those to be met with anywhere else in the world.

_Political Divisions and Population._--Politically the Malay Peninsula is divided into four sections: the colony of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States; the independent Malay State of Johor, which is within the British sphere of influence; the non-federated states under British protection; and the groups of states to the north of Perak and Pahang which are now recognized as lying within the sphere of influence of Siam. The colony of the Straits Settlements consists of the islands of Singapore, Penang and the Dindings, the territory of Province Wellesley, on the mainland opposite to Penang, the insignificant territory of the Dindings, and the town and territory of Malacca. The Federated Malay States under British protection consist of the sultanates of Perak, Selangor and the Negri Sambilan on the west coast, and the sultanate of Pahang on the east coast. Johor is the only Malay state in the southern portion of the peninsula, the whole of which is within the British sphere, which has been suffered to remain under native rule. The non-federated states under British protection (since 1909) are Kelantan, Trengganu, Kedah and Perlis (Palit). The population of the peninsula numbers about 2,000,000, of whom about 600,000 inhabit the colony of the Straits Settlements, about 900,000 the Federated Malay States, about 200,000 the Malay State of Johor, and about 250,000 to 300,000 the remainder of the peninsula. The population of the peninsula includes about 850,000 Chinese, mostly immigrants or descendants of immigrants from the southern provinces of China, of whom about 300,000 reside in the colony of the Straits Settlements, 365,000 in the Federated Malay States, 150,000 in Johor, and the remainder in smaller communities or as isolated traders scattered throughout the villages and small towns of the peninsula. The Malay population of the peninsula, including immigrants from the eastern archipelago, number some 750,000 to 800,000, while the Tamils and other natives of India number about 100,000, the aboriginal natives of the peninsula perhaps 20,000, Europeans and Americans about 6500, and Eurasians about 9000. The colony of the Straits Settlements, and to a lesser extent the towns of the Federated Malay States, carry a considerable heterogenous population, in which most of the races of Asia find their representatives.

_Races of the Peninsula._--Excluding the Tai, or Siamese, who are
undoubtedly recent intruders from the north, there are three races
which for an extended period of time have had their home in the Malay
Peninsula. These are the Semang or Pangan, the Sakai or Jakun, and the
Malays. The Semang, as they are most usually called by the Malays, are
Negritos--a small, very dark people, with features of the negroid
type, very prognathous, and with short, woolly hair clinging to the
scalp in tiny crisp curls. These people belong to the race which would
seem to be the true aboriginal stock of southern Asia. Representatives
of it are found scattered about the islands from the Andaman group
southwards. The state of civilization to which they have attained is
very low. They neither plant nor have they any manufactures except
their rude bamboo and rattan vessels, the fish and game traps which
they set with much skill, and the bows, blow-pipes and bamboo spears
with which they are armed. They are skilful hunters, however, catch
fish by ingeniously constructed traps, and live almost entirely on
jungle-roots and the produce of their hunting and fishing. The most
civilized of these people is found in Upper Perak, and the members of
this clan have acquired some knowledge of the art of planting, &c.
They cannot, however, be taken as typical of their race, and other
specimens of this people are seldom seen even by the Sakai. From time
to time they have been raided by the latter, and many Negritos are to
be found in captivity in some of the Malayan villages on the eastern
side of the peninsula. The mistake of speaking of the Sakai tribes as
practically identical with the Semang or Pangan has very frequently
been made, but as a matter of fact the two races are absolutely
distinct from one another. It has also been customary to include the
Sakai in the category of Malayan races, but this too is undoubtedly
incorrect. The Sakai still inhabit in greatest numbers the country
which forms the interior of Pahang, the Plus and Kinta districts of
Perak, and the valley of Nenggiri in Kelantan. Representatives of
their race are also found scattered among the Malayan villages
throughout the country, and also along the coast, but these have
intermixed so much with the Malays, and have acquired so many customs,
&c., from their more civilized neighbours, that they can no longer be
regarded as typical of the race to which they belong. The pure Sakai
in the interior have a good knowledge of planting rice, tapioca, &c.,
fashion pretty vessels from bamboos, which they decorate with patterns
traced by the aid of fire, make loin-cloths (their only garment) from
the bark of the _trap_ and _ipoh_ trees; are very musical, using a
rude lute of bamboo, and a nose-flute of a very sweet tone, and
singing in chorus very melodiously; and altogether have attained in
their primitive state to a higher degree of civilization than have the
Semang. They are about as tall as the average Malay, are slimly built,
light of colour, and have wavy fine hair. In their own language they
usually have only three numerals, viz. _na-nun_, one; _nar_, two; and
_ne'_, three, or variants of these; all higher arithmetical ideas
being expressed by the word _kerpn_, which means "many." A few cases
have been recorded, however, of tribes who can count in their own
tongue up to four and five. Among the more civilized, however, the
Malay numerals up to ten are adopted by the Sakai. An examination of
their language seems to indicate that it belongs to the Mon-Khmer
group of languages, and the anthropological information forthcoming
concerning the Sakai points to the conclusion that they show a greater
affinity to the people of the Mon-Khmer races than to the Malayan
stock. Though they now use metal tools imported by the Malays, it is
noticeable that the names which they give to those weapons which most
closely resemble in character the stone implements found in such
numbers all over the peninsula are native names wholly unconnected
with their Malay equivalents. On account of this, it has been
suggested that in a forgotten past the Sakai were themselves the
fashioners of the stone implements, and certain it is that all tools
which have no representatives among the stone kelts are known to the
Sakai by obvious corruptions of their Malayan names. The presence of
the Sakai, a people of the Mon-Khmer stock, in the interior of the
peninsula has also been considered as one of many proofs that the
Malays intruded from the south and approached the peninsula by means
of a sea-route, since had they swept down from the north, being driven
thence by the people of a stronger breed, it might be expected that
the fringe of country dividing the two contending races would be
inhabited by men of the more feeble stock. Instead, we find the Sakai
occupying this position, thus indicating that they have been driven
northward by the Malays, and that the latter people has not been
expelled by the Mon-Khmer races from the countries now represented by
Burma, Siam and French Indo-China. The Sakai population is dying out,
and must eventually disappear. (With regard to the Malay, see MALAYS.)

_Archaeology._--The only ancient remains found in the peninsula are
the stone implements, of which mention has already been made, and some
remarkable ancient mines, which are situated in the Jelai valley in
Pahang. The stone implements are generally of one or two types: a long
rectangular adze or wedge rudely pointed at one end, and used in
conjunction with a mallet or flat stone, and a roughly triangular
axe-head, which has evidently been fixed in the cleft of a split
stick. A few stones, which might perhaps be arrowheads, have been
found, but they are very rare. The mines, which have been constructed
for the purpose of working quartz lodes containing gold, are very
extensive, and argue a high stage of civilization possessed by the
ancient miners. They consist of a number of circular or rectangular
pits sunk from the cap of a hill, and going down to a depth of in some
cases as much as 120 ft., until in fact the miners have been stopped
by being unable to cope with the quantity of water made when the level
of the valley was reached. The shafts are placed so close together
that in many instances they are divided by only a couple of feet of
solid ground, but at their bases a considerable amount of gallery work
has been excavated, though it is possible that this was done by miners
who came after the people who originally sank the shafts. Native
tradition attributes these mines to the Siamese, but no importance can
be attached to this, as it is very general for the Malays to give this
explanation for anything which is obviously not the work of their own
ancestors. A theory, which seems to have some probability in its
favour, is that these mines were worked by the Khmer people during the
period of power, energy and prosperity which found its most lofty
expression in the now ruined and deserted city of Angkor Thom; while
another attributes these works to the natives of India whose Hindu
remains are found in Java and elsewhere, whose influence was at one
time widespread throughout Malayan lands, and of whose religious
teaching remnants still linger in the superstitions of the Malays and
are preserved in some purity in Lombok and Bali. In the absence,
however, of any relics of a kind which might lead to the
identification of the ancient miners, their nationality and origin are
matters which must continue to be mere questions of speculation and
conjecture.

_History._--The first hint to reach Europe concerning the existence of habitable lands to the eastward of the Ganges is to be found in the writings of Pomponius Mela (A.D. 43) which speak of Chryse, or the Golden Isle, as lying off Cape Tamus--supposed to be the most easterly point in Asia--and over against the estuary of the Ganges. Thereafter there occur vague references to Chryse in the _Periplus of the Erythrean Sea_, &c., but the earliest trace of anything resembling first-hand knowledge concerning the peninsula of Indo-China and Malaya is revealed in the writings of Ptolemy, whose views were mainly derived from those of his predecessor Marinus of Tyre, who in his turn drew his deductions from information supplied to him by the mariner Alexander who, there is every reason to think, had himself voyaged to the Malay Peninsula and beyond. In the light of present knowledge concerning the trade-routes of Asia, which had been in existence for thousands of years ere ever Europeans attempted to make use of them, it is safe to identify Ptolemy's Sinus Perimulicus with the Gulf of Siam, the Sinus Sabaricus with the Straits of Malacca from their southern portals to the Gulf of Martaban, the Aurea Chersonesus with the Malay Peninsula, and the island of Iabadius or Sabadius--the reading of the name is doubtful--with Sumatra, not as has often been mistakenly attempted with Java. Although the first definite endeavour to locate the Golden Chersonese thus dates from the middle of the 2nd century of our era, the name was apparently well known to the learned of Europe at a somewhat earlier period, and in his _Antiquities of the Jews_, written during the latter half of the 1st century, Josephus says that Solomon gave to the pilots furnished to him by Hiram of Tyre commands "that they should go along with his stewards to the land that of old was called Ophir, but now the Aurea Chersonesus, which belongs to India, to fetch gold." After the time of Ptolemy no advance in knowledge concerning the geography of south-eastern Asia was made until Cosmas Indicopleustes, a monk and an Alexandrian Greek, wrote from personal knowledge between A.D. 530 and 550. His primary object was to prove that the world was built after the same shape and fashion as the Ark made by the Children of Israel in the desert; but he was able to show that the Malay Peninsula had to be rounded and thereafter a course steered in a northerly direction if China was to be reached. Meanwhile inter-Asiatic intercourse by means of sea-routes had been steadily on the increase since the discovery of the way to utilize the monsoons and to sail directly to and fro across the Indian Ocean (attributed to the Greek pilot Hippalus) had been made. After the decline of the power of Rome, the dominant force in Asiatic commerce and navigation was Persia, and from that time onward, until the arrival of the Portuguese upon the scene early in the 16th century the spice trade, whose chief emporia were in or near the Malay Peninsula, was in Persian or Arab hands. There is considerable reason to think, however, that the more frequent ports of call in the Straits of Malacca were situated in Sumatra, rather than on the shores of the Malay Peninsula, and two famous medieval travellers, Marco Polo and Ibn Batuta, both called and wintered at the former, and make scant mention of the latter.

The importance of the Malay Peninsula, as has been noted, consisted in the privilege which its locality conferred upon it of being the distributing centre of the spices brought thither from the Moluccas _en route_ for India and Europe. As early as the 3rd century B.C. Megasthenes makes mention of spices brought to the shores of the Ganges from "the southern parts of India," and the trade in question was probably one of the most ancient in the world. So long, however, as India held the monopoly of the clove, the Malay Peninsula was ignored, the Hindus spreading their influence through the islands of the archipelago and leaving traces thereof even to this day. The Mahommedan traders from Persia and Arabia, following the routes which had been prepared for them by their forebears, broke down the Hindu monopoly and ousted the earlier exploiters so effectually that by the beginning of the 16th century the spice trade was almost exclusively in their hands. These traders were also missionaries of their religion, as indeed is every Mahommedan, and to them is due the conversion of the Malays from rude pantheism, somewhat tinctured by Hindu mythology, to the Mahommedan creed. The desire to obtain the monopoly of the spice trade has been a potent force in the fashioning of Asiatic history. The Moluccas were, from the first, the objective of the Portuguese invaders, and no sooner had the white men found their way round the Cape of Good Hope and established themselves successively upon the coast of East Africa, in the neighbourhood of the Gulf of Aden and the Malabar coast, than Malacca, then the chief trading centre of the Malayan Archipelago, became the object of their desire. The first Portuguese expedition sent out to capture Malacca was under the command of Diogo Lopez de Siqueira and sailed from Portugal in 1508. At Cochin Siqueira took on board certain adherents of Alphonso d'Alboquerque who were in bad odour with his rival d'Almeida, among them being Magellan, the future circumnavigator of the world, and Francisco Serrão, the first European who ever lived in the Spice Islands. Siqueira's expedition ended in failure, owing partly to the aggressive attitude of the Portuguese, partly to the very justifiable suspicions of the Malays, and he was presently forced to destroy one of his vessels, to leave a number of his men in captivity, and to sail direct for Portugal. In 1510 a second expedition against Malacca was sent out from Portugal under the command of Diogo Mendez de Vasconcellos, but d'Alboquerque retained it at Cochin to aid him in the retaking of Goa, and it was not until 1511 that the great viceroy could spare time to turn his attention to the scene of Siqueira's failure. After some futile negotiations, which had for their object the recovery of the Portuguese captives before hostilities should begin, an assault was delivered upon Malacca, and though the first attempt to take the city failed after some hard fighting, a second assault made some days later succeeded, and Malacca passed for ever into European hands. The Portuguese were satisfied with the possession of Malacca itself and did not seek further to extend their empire in Malaya. Instead they used every endeavour to establish friendly relations with the rulers of all the neighbouring kingdoms, and before d'Alboquerque returned to India he despatched embassies to China, Siam, and several kingdoms of Sumatra, and sent a small fleet, with orders to assume a highly conciliatory attitude toward all natives, in search of the Moluccas. Very soon the spice trade had become a Portuguese monopoly, and Malacca was the great headquarters of the trade. It should moreover be noted that Magellan's famous expedition had for its object not the barren feat of circumnavigation but the breaking down of this monopoly, without violating the terms of the papal bull which gave to Spain the conquest of the West, to Portugal the possession of the East. In 1528 a French expedition sailed from Dieppe, penetrated as far as Achin in Sumatra, but returned without reaching the Malay Peninsula. It was, however, the first attempt ever made to defy the papal bull. In 1591, three years after the defeat of the Armada, Raymond and Lancaster rounded the Cape, and after cruising off Penang, decided to winter in Achin. They subsequently hid among the Pulau Sambilan near the mouth of the Perak river, and thence captured a large Portuguese vessel which was sailing from Malacca in company with two Burmese ships. In 1595 the first Dutch expedition sailed from the Texel, but it took a more southerly course than its predecessors and confined its operations to Java and the neighbouring islands. During this period Achin developed a determined enmity to the Portuguese, and more than one attempt was made to drive the strangers from Malacca. Eventually, in 1641, a joint attack was made by the Achinese and the Dutch, but the latter, not the people of the sturdy little Sumatran kingdom, became the owners of the coveted port. Malacca was taken from the Dutch by the British in 1795; was restored to the latter in 1818; but in 1824 was exchanged for Benkulen and a few more unimportant places in Sumatra. The first British factory in the peninsula was established in the native state of Patani on the east coast in 1613, the place having been used by the Portuguese in the 16th century for a similar purpose; but the enterprise came to an untimely end in 1620 when Captain Jourdain, the first president, was killed in a naval engagement in Patani Roads by the Dutch. Penang was purchased from Kedah in 1786, and Singapore from the then sultan of Johor in 1819. The Straits Settlements--Singapore, Malacca and Penang--were ruled from India until 1867, when they were erected into a crown colony under the charge of the Colonial Office. In 1874 the Malay state of Perak was placed under British protection by a treaty entered into with its sultan; and this eventually led to the inclusion in a British protectorate of the neighbouring Malay States of Selangor, Sungei Ujong, the cluster of small states called the Negri Sembilan and Pahang, which now form the Federated Malay States. By a treaty made between Great Britain and Siam in 1902 the northern Malay states of the peninsula were admitted to lie within the Siamese sphere of influence, but by a treaty of 1909 Siam ceded her suzerain rights over the states of Kelantan, Trengganu, Kedah and Perlis to Britain.

Singapore is the political, commercial and administrative headquarters of the colony of the Straits Settlements, and the governor for the time being is _ex officio_ high commissioner of the Federated Malay States, British North Borneo, Sarawak, the Cocos-Keeling and Christmas Islands, and governor of Labuan.

See Sir F. Swettenham, _British Malaya_ (1906); H. Clifford, _Further
India_ (1904); _Journal of the Malay Archipelago_, Logan (Singapore);
_Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_
(Singapore); Weld, Maxwell, Swettenham and Clifford in the _Journal of
the Royal Colonial Institute_ (London); Clifford in the _Journal of
the Royal Geographical Society_ (London). (H. Cl.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] See R. B. Newton, "Notes on Literature bearing upon the Geology
of the Malay Peninsula; with an Account of a Neolithic Implement from
that Country" (Geol. Mag., 1901, pp. 128-134). See also the various
reports by J. B. Scrivenor in _Suppl. Perak Gov. Gazette_, 1905.

MALAYS, the name given by Europeans to the people calling themselves _Orang Malayu_, i.e. Malayan folk, who are the dominant race of the Malay Peninsula and of the Malay Archipelago. Broadly speaking, all the brown races which inhabit the portion of Asia south of Siam and Indo-China, and the islands from the Philippines to Java, and from Sumatra to Timor, may be described as belonging to the Malayan family, if the aboriginal tribes, such as the Sakai and Semang in the Malay Peninsula, the Bataks in Sumatra, and the Muruts in Borneo, be excepted. For the purposes of this article, however, only those among these races which bear the name of Orang Malayu, speak the Malayan language, and represent the dominant people of the land, can be included under the title of Malays. These people inhabit the whole of the Malayan Peninsula to the borders of lower Siam, the islands in the vicinity of the mainland, the shores of Sumatra and some portions of the interior of that island, Sarawak and Brunei in Borneo, and some parts of Dutch Borneo, Batavia and certain districts in Java, and some of the smaller islands of the archipelago. Though in these lands they have for not less than a thousand years enjoyed the position of the dominant race, they all possess a tradition that they are not indigenous, and that their first rulers "came out of the sea," with a large band of Malayan warriors in their train. In the peninsula especially, where the presence of the Malays is more recent than elsewhere, many traditions exist which point to a comparatively recent occupation of the country. It has been remarked that there is evidence that the Malays had attained to a certain stage of civilization before ever they set foot in Malaya. For instance, the names which they give to certain fruits, such as the _duri-an_, the _rambut-an_ and the _pulas-an_, which are indigenous in the Malayan countries, and are not found elsewhere, are all compound words meaning respectively the thorny, the hairy and the twisted fruit. These words are formed by the addition of the substantial affix "-_an_," the use of which is one of the recognized methods by which the Malays turn primitive words into terms of more complex meaning. This may be taken to indicate that when first the Malays became acquainted with the fruits which are indigenous in Malayan lands they already possessed a language in which most primary words were represented, and also that their tongue had attained to a stage of development which provided for the formation of compound words by a system sanctioned by custom and the same linguistic instinct which causes a Malay to-day to form similar compounds from European and other foreign roots. For any aboriginal race inhabiting these countries, such important articles of diet as the _duri-an_, &c., could not fail to be among the first natural objects to receive a name, and thus we find primary terms in use among the Sakai and Semang, the aborigines of the Peninsula, to describe these fruits. The use by the Malays of artificially constructed terms to denote these things may certainly be taken to strengthen the opinion that the Malays arrived in the lands they now inhabit at a comparatively late period in their history, and at a time when they had developed considerably from the original state of primitive man.

In the Malay Peninsula itself there is abundant evidence, ethnological and philological, of at least two distinct immigrations of people of the Malayan stock, the earlier incursions, it is probable, taking place from the eastern archipelago to the south, the later invasion spreading across the Straits of Malacca from Sumatra at a comparatively recent date. The fact that the semi-wild tribes, which are ethnologically Malayan and distinct from the aboriginal Semang and Sakai, are met with almost invariably in the neighbourhood of the coast would seem to indicate that they reached the peninsula by a sea, not by a land route, a supposition which is strengthened by their almost amphibious habits. Many of these tribes have retained their pristine paganism, but many others it is certain have adopted the Mahommedan religion and have been assimilated by the subsequent and stronger wave of Sumatran immigrants. A study of the local dialects to be met with in some of the districts of the far interior, e.g. the Tembeling valley in Pahang, whose people are now Mahommedans and in many respects indistinguishable from the ordinary Malays of the peninsula, reveals the fact that words, current in the archipelago to the south but incomprehensible to the average peninsula Malays, by whom these more ancient populations are now completely surrounded, have been preserved as local words, whereas they really belong to an older dialect once spoken widely in the peninsula, as to-day it is spoken in the Malayan islands. This would seem to show that in some instances the earlier Malay immigrants fell or were driven by the later invaders back from the coast and sought refuge in the far interior.

Theories of Origin.

Until recently many eminent scientists held the theory that the Malayan peoples were merely an offspring of the Mongol stock, and that their advance into the lands they now inhabit had taken place from the cradle of the Mongolian race--that is to say, from the north. In the fifth edition of his _Malay Archipelago_, A. R. Wallace notes the resemblance which he traced between the Malays and the Mongolians, and others have recorded similar observations as to the physical appearance of the two races. To-day, however, fuller data are available than when Wallace wrote, and the more generally accepted theory is that the Malayan race is distinct, and came from the south, until it was stayed by the Mongolian races living on the mainland of southern Asia. The cranial measurements of the Malays and an examination of their hair sections seem to bear out the theory that they are distinct from the Mongolian races. Their language, which is neither monosyllabic nor tonic, has nothing in common with that of the Mon-Annam group. It has, moreover, been pointed out that had the Malays been driven southwards by the stronger races of the mainland of Asia, it might be expected that the people inhabiting the country nearest to the border between Siam and Malaya would belong to the Malayan and not to the Mon-Annam or Mon-Khmer stock. As a matter of fact the Sâkai of the interior of the peninsula belong to the latter race. It might also be anticipated, were the theory of a southward immigration to be sustained, that the Malays would be new-comers in the islands of the archipelago, and have their oldest settlements on the Malayan Peninsula. The facts, however, are in exact contradiction to this; and accordingly the theory now most generally held by those who have studied the question is that the Malays form a distinct race, and had their original home in the south. Where this home lay it is not easy to say, but the facts recorded by many writers as to the resemblance between the Polynesian and the Malayan races, and the strong Malayan element found in the languages of the former (see Tregear's _Maori and Comparative Polynesian Dictionary_, London, 1891), have led some students to think that the two races may have had a common origin. John Crawfurd, in the Dissertation to his _Dictionary of the Malay Language_, published in 1840, noted the prevalence of Malayan terms in the Polynesian languages, and attributed the fact to the casting away of ships manned by Malays upon the islands of the Polynesian Archipelago. The appearance of the same Malayan words in localities so widely separated from each other, however, cannot be satisfactorily accounted for by any such explanation, and the theory is now more generally held that the two races are probably allied and may at some remote period of history have shared a common home. It has been suggested that their separation did not take place until after the continent which once existed in the north Pacific had become submerged, and that the Malays wandered northward, while the Polynesian race spread itself over the islands of the southern archipelago. All this, however, must necessarily be of the nature of the purest speculation, and the only facts which we are able to deduce in the present state of our knowledge of the subject may be summed up as follows: (a) That the Malays ethnologically belong to a race which is allied to the Polynesians; (b) that the theory formerly current to the effect that the Sakai and other similar races of the peninsula and archipelago belonged to the Malayan stock cannot be maintained, since recent investigations tend to identify them with the Mon-Annam or Mon-Khmer family of races; (c) that the Malays are, comparatively speaking, new-comers in the lands which they now inhabit; (d) that it is almost certain that their emigration took place from the south; (e) and that, at some remote period of their history, they came into close contact with the Polynesian race, probably before its dispersion over the extensive area which it now occupies.

Religion and Superstitions.

The Malays to-day are Sunni Mahommedans of the school of Shafi'i, and
they habitually use the terms _Orang Malayu_, i.e. a Malay, and _Orang
Islam_, i.e. a Mahommedan, as synonymous expressions. Their conversion
from paganism took place during the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries of
our era. The raja of Achin, in northern Sumatra, is said to have been
converted as early as 1206, while the Bugis people in Celebes are
supposed not to have become Mahommedans until 1495. Mahommedanism
undoubtedly spread to the Malays of the peninsula from Sumatra, but
their conversion was slow and gradual, and may even now in some
respects be regarded as imperfect. Upon the bulk of the Malayan
peoples their religion sits but lightly. Few are found to observe the
law concerning the Five Hours of Prayer, and many fail to put in an
appearance at the Friday congregational services in the mosques. The
Fast of Ramadhan, however, is generally observed with some
faithfulness. Compared with other Mahommedan peoples, the Malays are
not fanatical, though occasionally an outbreak against those of a
different creed is glorified by them into a holy war. The reason of
such outbreaks, however, is usually to be found in political and
social rather than in religious grievances. Prior to their conversion
to Mahommedanism the Malays were subjected to a considerable Hindu
influence, which reached them by means of the traders who visited the
archipelago from India. In the islands of Bali and Lombok the people
still profess a form of Hinduism, and Hindu remains are to be found in
many other parts of the archipelago, though their traces do not extend
to the peninsula. Throughout, however, the superstitions of the Malays
show indications of this Hindu influence, and many of the demons whom
their medicine-men invoke in their magic practices are clearly
borrowed from the pantheon of India. For the rest, a substratum of
superstitious beliefs, which survives from the days when the Malays
professed only their natural religion, is to be found firmly rooted in
the minds of the people, and the influence of Mahommedanism, which
regards such things with horror, has been powerless to eradicate this.
Mr W. W. Skeat's _Malay Magic_ (London, 1900) is a compilation of all
the writings on the subject of Malay superstitions by the best
authorities and contains considerable original matter.

Mode of Life, &c.

The Malays of the coast are a maritime people, and were long famous
for the daring character of their acts of piracy. They are now
peaceable fisher-folk, who show considerable ingenuity in their
calling. Inland the Malays live by preference on the banks of rivers,
building houses on piles some feet from the ground, and planting
groves of coco-nut, betel-nut, sugar-palm and fruit-trees around their
dwellings. Behind their villages the rice-fields usually spread, and
rice, which is the staple food of the people, is the principal article
of agriculture among them. Sugar-cane, maize, tapioca and other
similar products are grown, however, in smaller quantities. In
planting rice three methods are in use: the cultivation of swamp-rice
in irrigated fields; the planting of ploughed areas; and the planting
of hill-rice by sowing each grain separately in holes bored for the
purpose. In the irrigated fields the rice plants are first grown in
nurseries, and are subsequently transplanted when they have reached a
certain stage of development. The Malays also work jungle produce, of
which the most important are gutta, rattans, agila wood, camphor wood,
and the beautiful _kamuning_ wood which is used by the natives for the
hilts of their weapons. The principal manufactures of the Malays are
cotton and silk cloths, earthenware and silver vessels, mats and
native weapons. The best cotton cloths are those manufactured by the
Bugis people in Celebes, and the _batek_ cloths which come from Java
and are stamped with patterns. The best silks are produced by the
natives of Pahang, Kelantan and Johor in the Malay Peninsula. Lord
Leighton pronounced the silver ware from Malaya to be the most
artistic of any exhibited at the Colonial Exhibition held in London in
1886. The pottery of the Malays is rude but curious. When the first
Europeans visited the Malay Archipelago the Malays had already
acquired the art of manufacturing gunpowder and forging cannon. The
art of writing also appears to have been independently invented by the
Malayan races, since numerous alphabets are in use among the peoples
of the archipelago, although for the writing of Malay itself the
Arabic character has been adopted for some hundreds of years. The
Malays are excellent boat-builders.

Character, &c.

While the Malays were famous almost exclusively for their piratical
expeditions they naturally bore an evil reputation among Europeans,
but now that we have come into closer contact with them, and have
learned to understand them better, the old opinions concerning them
have been greatly modified. They used to be described as the most
cruel and treacherous people in the world, and they certainly are
callous of the pain suffered by others, and regard any strategy of
which their enemies are the victims with open admiration. In ordinary
circumstances, however, the Malay is not treacherous, and there are
many instances recorded in which men of this race have risked their
own lives on behalf of Europeans who chanced to be their friends. As a
race they are exceedingly courteous and self-respecting. Their own
code of manners is minute and strict, and they observe its provisions
faithfully. Unlike many Orientals, the Malays can be treated with a
friendly familiarity without such treatment breeding lack of respect
or leading to liberties being taken with the superior. The Malays are
indolent, pleasure-loving, improvident beyond belief, fond of bright
clothing, of comfort, of ease, and they dislike toil exceedingly. They
have no idea of the value of money, and little notion of honesty where
money is concerned. They would always borrow rather than earn money,
and they feel no shame in adopting the former course. They will
frequently refuse to work for a wage when they most stand in need of
cash, and yet at the invitation of one who is their friend they will
toil unremittingly without any thought of reward. They are much
addicted to gambling, and formerly were much given to fighting, though
they never display that passion for war in the abstract which is
characteristic of some of the white races, and their courage on the
whole is not high if judged by European standards. It is notorious,
however, on the coasts that a Malay gang on board a ship invariably
gets the better of any fight which may arise between it and the
Chinese crew. The sexual morality of the Malays is very lax, but
prostitution is not common in consequence. Polygamy, though allowed by
their religion, is practised for the most part among the wealthy
classes only. The Malays are an intensely aristocratic people, and
show a marvellous loyalty to their rajas and chiefs. Their respect for
rank is not marred by any vulgarity or snobbery. The ruling classes
among them display all the vices of the lower classes, and few of the
virtues except that of courtesy. They are for the most part, when
left to their own resources, cruel, unjust, selfish and improvident.

Much has been written concerning the acts of homicidal mania called
amuck (_amok_), which word in the vernacular means to attack. It was
formerly believed that these outbursts were to be attributed to
madness _pur et simple_, and some cases of _amok_ can certainly be
traced to this source. These are not, however, in any sense typical,
and might equally have been perpetrated by men of another race. The
typical _amok_ is usually the result of circumstances which render a
Malay desperate. The motive is often inadequate from the point of view
of a European, but to the Malay it is sufficient to make him weary of
life and anxious to court death. Briefly, where a man of another race
might not improbably commit suicide, a Malay runs _amok_, killing all
whom he may meet until he himself is slain.

The nervous affliction called _latah_, to which many Malays are
subject, is also a curious trait of the people. The victims of this
affliction lose for the time all self-control and all sense of their
own identity, imitating the actions of any person who chances to rivet
their attention. Accounts of these manifestations will be found in
Swettenham's _Malay Sketches_ (London, 1895) and Clifford's _Studies
in Brown Humanity_ (London, 1897).

Costume, Weapons, &c.

The Malays wear a loose coat and trousers, and a cap or head-kerchief,
but the characteristic item of their costume is the _sarong_, a silk
or cotton cloth about two yards long by a yard and a quarter wide, the
ends of which are sewn together, forming a kind of skirt. This is worn
round the waist folded in a knot, the women allowing it to fall to the
ankle, the men, when properly dressed in accordance with ancient
custom, folding it over the hilt of their waist-weapon, and draping it
around them so that it reaches nearly to the knee. In the hall of a
raja on state occasions a head-kerchief twisted into a peak is worn,
and the coat is furnished with a high collar extending round the back
of the neck only. This coat is open in front, leaving the chest bare.
The trousers are short and of a peculiar cut and material, being
coloured many hues in parallel horizontal lines. The _sarong_ is of
Celebes manufacture and made of cotton, to the surface of which a high
polish is imparted by friction with a shell. The typical fighting
costume of the Malay is a sleeveless jacket with texts from the Koran
written upon it, short tight drawers reaching to the middle of the
thigh, and the _sarong_ is then bound tightly around the waist,
leaving the hilt of the dagger worn in the girdle exposed to view. The
principal weapon of the Malays is the _kris_, a short dagger with a
small wooden or ivory handle, of which there are many varieties. The
blade of a _kris_ may either be wavy or straight, but if wavy the
number of waves must always be uneven in number. The _kris_ most
prized by the Malays are those of Bugis (Celebes) manufacture, and of
these the kind called _tuasek_ are of the greatest value. Besides the
short _kris_, the Malays use long straight _kris_ with very narrow
blades, shorter straight _kris_ of the same form, short broad swords
called _sundang_, long swords of ordinary pattern called _pedang_,
somewhat shorter swords curved like scimitars with curiously carved
handles called _chenangkas_, and short stabbing daggers called _tumbok
lada_. The principal tools of the Malays are the _parang_ or _gôlok_,
a heavy knife used in the jungle, without which no peasant ever stirs
abroad from his house, the _beliong_ or native axe, and the _pisau
raut_, which is used for scraping rattan. Their implements are very
primitive, consisting of a plough fashioned from a fork of a tree, and
a rude harrow. Reaping is usually performed by the aid of a curious
little knife which severs each ear of grain separately. The
fisher-folk use many kinds of nets, which they manufacture themselves.
Sails, paddles, oars and punting-poles are all in use.

MALAY LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

The Malay language is a member of the Malayan section of the
Malayo-Polynesian class of languages, but it is by no means a
representative type of the section which has taken its name from it.
The area over which it is spoken comprises the peninsula of Malacca
with the adjacent islands (the Rhio-Lingga Archipelago), the greater
part of the coast districts of Sumatra and Borneo, the seaports of
Java, the Sunda and Banda Islands. It is the general medium of
communication throughout the archipelago from Sumatra to the
Philippine Islands, and it was so upwards of three hundred and fifty
years ago when the Portuguese first appeared in those parts.

There are no Malay manuscripts extant, no monumental records with
inscriptions in Malay, dating from before the spreading of Islam in
the archipelago, about the end of the 13th century. By some it has
been argued from this fact that the Malays possessed no kind of
writing prior to the introduction of the Arabic alphabet (W. Robinson,
J. J. de Hollander); whereas others have maintained, with greater show
of probability, that the Malays were in possession of an ancient
alphabet, and that it was the same as the Rechang (Marsden,
Friederich), as the Kawi (Van der Tuuk), or most like the Lampong
(Kern)--all of which alphabets, with the Battak, Bugi and Macassar,
are ultimately traceable to the ancient Cambojan characters. With the
Mahommedan conquest the Perso-Arabic alphabet was introduced among the
Malays; it has continued ever since to be in use for literary,
religious and business purposes. Where Javanese is the principal
language, Malay is sometimes found written with Javanese characters;
and in Palembang, in the Menangkabo country of Middle Sumatra, the
Rechang or Renchong characters are in general use, so called from the
sharp and pointed knife with which they are cut on the smooth side of
bamboo staves. It is only since the Dutch have established their
supremacy in the archipelago that the Roman character has come to be
largely used in writing and printing Malay. This is also the case in
the Straits Settlements.

By the simplicity of its phonetic elements, the regularity of its
grammatical structure, and the copiousness of its nautical vocabulary,
the Malay language is singularly well fitted to be the _lingua franca_
throughout the Indian archipelago. It possesses the five vowels _a_,
_i_, _u_, _e_, _o_, both short and long, and one pure diphthong, _au_.
Its consonants are _k_, _g_, _ng_, _ch_, _j_, _ñ_, _t_, _d_, _n_, _p_,
_b_, _m_, _y_, _r_, _l_, _w_, _s_, _h_. Long vowels can only occur in
open syllables. The only possible consonantal nexus in purely Malay
words is that of a nasal and mute, a liquid and mute and vice versa,
and a liquid and nasal. Final _k_ and _h_ are all but suppressed in
the utterance. Purely Arabic letters are only used in Arabic words, a
great number of which have been received into the Malay vocabulary.
But the Arabic character is even less suited to Malay than to the
other Eastern languages on which it has been foisted. As the short
vowels are not marked, one would, in seeing, e.g. the word _bntng_,
think first of _bintang_, a star; but the word might also mean a large
scar, to throw down, to spread, rigid, mutilated, enceinte, a kind of
cucumber, a redoubt, according as it is pronounced, _bantang_,
_banting_, _bentang_, _buntang_, _buntung_, _bunting_, _bonteng_,
_benteng_.