The population of the peninsula includes about 1,200,000 Chi nese, mostly immigrants or descendants of immigrants from the southern provinces of China, of whom about 5oo,00o reside in the colony of the Straits Settlements, 494,000 in the Federated, and the remainder in the Unfederated Malay States. The Malay popu lation of the peninsula, including immigrants from the eastern archipelago, number some 1,600,000, while Tamils and natives of India number about 470,00o, the aboriginal natives of the pen insula about 33,000, Europeans and Americans about 15,00o, and Eurasians about 12,000.
Excluding the Tai, or Siamese, who are 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 and the proto- and civilized 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, 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 aboriginal stock of southern Asia. They appear to be related to the Aetas of the Philippines and the Andamanese. (See ANDAMANESE and NEGRITOS.) 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, catch fish by in geniously 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 mem bers of this clan have some knowledge of the art of planting. To include the Sakai in the category of Malayan races is also in correct. 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 scattered among Malay villages throughout the country, and also along the coast, but these have mixed with Malays, and acquired so many customs, etc., 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, etc., fashion 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 musical, using a rude lute of bamboo, and a nose-flute, and singing in chorus melodi ously; and altogether have attained to a higher degree of civiliza tion 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, how ever, of tribes who can count in their own tongue up to four and five. Among the more civilized, the Malay numerals up to ten are adopted. An examination of their language seems to indicate that it belongs to the Mon-Khmer group of languages, and anthro pological information points to the conclusion that they may be related to the Veddas of Ceylon. Though they now use metal tools imported by the Malays, the names they give to those weapons which most closely resemble the stone implements found all over the peninsula are native names wholly unconnected with their Malay equivalents. It has been suggested that in a forgotten past the Sakai were the fashioners or importers of the stone imple ments. The presence of the Sakai in the interior of the peninsula has been considered as one of many proofs that the Malays in truded from the south and approached the peninsula by means of a sea-route, since had they swept down from the north, 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. It is remarkable that the Negritos never pierced the Sakai belt : though more primitive, they may have come to Malaya later, thus indicating that they have been driven northward by the Malays. (With regard to the Malay, see MALAYS.) Archaeology.—Stone celts of various types have been un earthed in caves, mines and rice-fields, throughout the Federated Malay States. Cord-marked and other pottery occurs in the upper layers of palaeo-protoneolithic culture and with late neo liths. In Batang Padang, Perak, have been found graves, built of large granite slabs ; cists, closely related to the dolmen. Rough pottery, iron tools with small sockets for handles, cornelian beads, cross-hatched stone-pounders, and bronze implements of various types reveal the culture of the people, who built these graves. At Kenaboi, in Negri Sembilan, stone quoits, stone bark-pounders and tiny socketed bronze celts were found associated. Possibly these are relics of the Mon-Khmers. And it may have been they, who at Selinsing, Pahang, and elsewhere sunk circular pits (now termed "Siamese mines" by the Malays) as deep as 120 ft. and sometimes no more than 2 It. apart and connected at the base by galleries.