The Semang and the Udai dwell in the forests in the north, and are met with in Quedah, Perak, Tringanu, and Salangor. To the north of the pro vince of Ligore, the Semang seem to be called Karian. Malays class the Semang as the Semang Paya, Semang Bukit, Semang Bakowe, and Semano. Bila, meaning the Semang of the marsh, of the hills, of the coast, and the .civilised. Sir Stamford Raffles and Mr. Anderson described the Semang as having a black skin, woolly hair, thick lips, flat nose, receding forehead, and protuberant belly; and subsequent authorities regard them as of the Papuan race. Newbold (ii. p. 378) says that those around Quedah are scarcely to be dis tinguished from the Jakun, having the same curly and matted, though not frizzled hair, but with a complexion generally a little darker. They use poisoned arrows with the blowpipe sumpitan. They are said to write on the leaves of the stebbal.' Many have been converted to Muhammadanism. They will be further noticed along with the Papuans.
The Orang Sabimba is a small tribe of forest nomades who hunt the wild hog with dogs, and use the sumpitan blowpipe as their weapon. Rice is their chief food, but they eat the hog, monkey, snakes, birds of all kinds, except the domestic fowl. They abstain from agriculture. They bury their dead, depositing all the deceased's utensils along with the body. They speak the Malay language, but with a peculiar accent.
The Mintira believe that all diseases are caused by spirits, each ailment having its own spirit, who haunts in caves, in woods. They have wishing rocks to which they resort to gather the Chinkwi flower, which gives them supernatural power over others. Amongst their marriage ceremonies is that of the bride and bridegroom eating from the same plate. The Mintira, and all the tribes Of the interior, have a dread of the sea, and never venture on it.
The Chinese scattered over the principal islands of the Archipelago were estimated in 1839 at nearly a million in Siam, Tonqnin, Cochin-China, Kamboja, Laos, and the Malay Peninsula. In the year 1871, in the British Settlements in the Straits, there were 103,936. Facilities for travel have allured a great influx of that intelligent race, who are largely engaged in mining operations, in garden cultivation.
The Orang (Slitar) Selat, literally people of the straits, the Cellates of Valentyn, are a wild tribe, living in boats near the old Straits of Singapore, using small boats 20 feet long. With the Bide anda, they are joint occupants of Singapore. They speak a Malay dialect with a guttural accent. They gather shell-fish ; they fish and collect forest produce. They are liable to a leprous affection of the skin. They are supposed to be
uncivilised Malays.
The Sakai is a pagan population in the Malay Peninsula, divided into the Sakai Jina and Sakai Bukit, the latter being hillmen and mountaineers, the former more settled and civilised. They are strict worshippers of the elements. Sakai is the Pahang word for an aboriginal.
The Halo, a branch of the Sakai, tattoo their face and breast, pierce their ears and nose, and insert porcupine quills. The Sakai tongue of Perak appears to resemble in its phonetic character the ruder dialects of the Burman group. This character is intermediate between that of the Semang on the one side, and that of the ruder Sumatran, Javan, and Borneon on the other. The Johore Binua is more guttural, aspirate, and harsh, remarkably broad and slow.
Rayat Laut and Orang Laut literally mean seafaring people. The Malays distinguish them from the localities they occupy, as the Orang Hwang, the Orang Selat or Orang Sitter. Their principal haunts are Galang, Selat, Mum, Baru, Kalang, Timiang, Liugga, Tambusa, Sooglii, Mantang, Akik, Murabu, and Batas. They re semble the Jakun and Malay in appearance, but are of darker colour, and more savage and uncouth in aspect. They are proud and restless, impatient of control, and fond of music. They live in their boats, in which they make long voyages. They are expert divers and fishers, and collect agar agar, trepang, wood, oil, etc. The Akkye or Rayat Lout, of the shores and islets, dwell apart from the.Malay, from whom they differ in habits and relioion. They are thinly scattered, living upon fish, and are probably identical with the Ichthyo pliagi mentioned by Herodotus, Diodorus, and Pliny.
The Selong or Selone sail all through the islands of the Mergui Archipelago, south of Tavoy. They are a mild, honest, intelligent, and peaceful race, timid, reserved, and difficult to approach. They number about 1000. They reside in their boats, which are good ; are decently clad, and are inclined to settle in villages and cultivate. They are fishers for the sea-slug, which they pick up at the low water of spring tides during the N.E. monsoon. They bring to the ports of Tenasserim and of the Malay Peninsula, tortoise-shell, the larger shells of the triton and nautilus, valuable for their mother-of-pearl ; the gigantic tridacna, and pearls found in a species of meleagrina in the deep bays of the Lampee Island ; also beche de-mer, sharks' fins, dried fish, and edible birds' nests. They believe that Nat or spirits dwell in the land, the sea, the air, and the forest, but they do not invoke or sacrifice to them. They subsist entirely on fish, turtle, and shell-fish.