The more southern states are Malay, inter spersed with small colonies of Chinese, mostly men, and of Chulia and Kling emigrants from the Peninsula of India. There are four British districts styled the Straits Settlements. These were occupied in the early part of the 19th century, and attracted numbers of Chinese, Malay, and Kling. A census taken in 1881 shows their population as under :— The smaller tribes of the interior and of the sea coast have their own names, but are known generally by Malay designations, of local signifi cation, with the word Orang prefixed,—Orang Binua, men of the soil ; men of the hills ; Orang-Utan, men of 'the woods ; Orang Slitar, men of the strait ; Orang Laut, men of the sea. Occasionally the Arabic word Rayat, or subject, is used, as Rayat Utan, Rayat Laut.
Also, among the forests and mountains of the interior are several barbarous tribes, who subsist chiefly by and by shooting game, using the blowpipe and poisoned arrows. Amongst them are the Semang, the Sakai, or Orang Bukit, men of the hills ; the Jakun, or Orang Ulan, or Rayat Utan, men of the woods. The wild tribes are chiefly in the mountain chain running down the centre of the Peninsula from Quedah to Point Ramunia. The Rayat Utan, the Jakun,, the Sakai, the Hala, the Belanda, and Besisik, are in the forests in the south.
Pahang territory extends from Sadile, in lat. 2° 15' N., to Kamamang or Kemaman. The population of Kemaman consists of Malays and Chinese ; but in the interior of Pakaa, between Kemaman and Tringanu, is an aboriginal race termed Pangan, said to have the frizzled hair of the Papuan.
Orang Binua, literally men of the soil, is a name applied by the Malays indiscriminately to all the uncivilised scattered tribes,—Semang, Bela, Jakun, Hala, and Udai. In the States of Sunjie Ujong and Johole there are twelve such tribes, besides the Besisik and the Belanda, and others in Salangor. The Binua have been supposed by some to be of Negro origin, but others regard them as Mongoloid races.
Newbold says it is stated by the Binua, and admitted by the Malays, that before the Malay Peninsula had the name of Malacca, it was in habited by the Orang Binua. In course of time, the early Arab trading vessels brought over priests from Arabia, who made a number of con verts to Islam ; those of the Orang Binua who declined to abjure the customs of their forefathers, in consequence of the persecutions to which they were exposed, fled to the fastnesses of the interior, where they have since continued in a savage state.
He says their general physical appearance, their lineaments, their nomadic habits, and a few simi larities in customs, point to a Tartar extraction.
In the Binua, the cheek-bones are broad in all directions and prominent,. giving to the face below the base of the forehead a marked lateral develop ment, beyond it or to the forehead an appearance of being compressed. The lower jaw is massive, spreads out, and does not rise rapidly, thus pro clueing an obtuse chin and the anterior maxillary projection considerable.
The ruder Binua dialects of the. Peninsula are rapidly disappearing. There are Binua on the Siamong and other branches of the Indau, which are in Johore. The southern part of Pahang is inhabited by the same tribe of Binua who are found in Johore. Some of them, indeed, have habitations, which can scarcely be called houses.
The Jakun are scattered through the interior, and are often called Rayat Utan. They do not differ materially from the Malay in colour and physiognomy.
The Bodoanda Jakun and Bodoanda Jawa are two tribes in the Rumbowe State. In Rumbowe Ilir are the Battu Anwar, Munkal, Paya Kumba Banat, and Tiga Nenik tribes, and in Rumbowe Ulu are the Battu Ballang, the Paya Kumba Darrat, the Sa Melongang, and the Sri Lummah ; also the Tiga Battu; Anak Malacca, Anak Achi (children of Malacca and Achin), and Tannah Dattar.
The Jakun are proud, impatient of control, but honest, fond of music. Both men and women, in their forests, have only a strip of the tarap tree for covering. The features of the Jakun or Sakai, the Belanda, the Besisik, and the Akkye bear a common resemblance to the pure Malays ; they have the same sturdy legs and breadth of chest, the small depressed, though not flattened nose, with diverging nostrils, and broad, prominent cheek - bones, which distinguish that race of men.
Udai are little known. Many Malays believe they are a class of Jakuns, while others affirm that they are a colony from some foreign country. The Tuanku Puteh of Rumbowe informed New bold that the Udai are a race of savages, thinly scattered over the states of Jellaba, 'Pahang, Tringanu, and Quedah, and resemble in feature the darker variety of Jakuns. Their size is repre sented as smaller, and their habits more savage, going nearly naked, dirty in person, rarely con structing huts, and subsisting on forest products, 'using the sumpitan and poisoned arrows, and sharp stakes as spears.