KEDAH or Quedah is called in Siamese Muang Sai, or the Sai kingdom. It extends from Trang river, in hit. 20' N., to the Krian, in lat. 5° 10' N. The Trang formerly divided it from Siam. Several tribes are within its limits. The Semang and Udai reside in the forests of the north ; tho Rayat Utan, the Jakun, the Sakkye, Bala, Belanda, Besisik, and others to the south ; while the Akkye or Itayat Laut dwell upon the shores and islets of the Peninsula. Wherever scattered, they live totally apart from the Malays, and differ from them widely in person, habits, and religion. The Malays sometimes class them all as Orang Ilinua, men of the soil. The Panghulu of Rum bowe is chosen alternately from the Bodoanda Jakun and a Malay tribe.
The complexion of the Semang and Bila is black or sooty, the hair woolly, the features approaching to the African, and the stature dwarfish. An adult Semang male was found to be only 4 feet 9 inches high. Some of the Semaug or Bila have fixed habitations, and practise a rude agriculture, but the majority lead an erratic life, gathering the rude products of the forest to exchange with the Malays for the necessaries of life, or subsisting by the chase The hair 'of the Semang is spiral, not woolly, and grows thickly on the head in tufts. They have thick moustaches, the growth being much stronger than in the Malay race. The expression of the face is mild, simple, and stupid. The voice is soft, low, nasal, and hollow, or cerebral. A lino
of tattooing extends from the forehead to the cheek-bones.
Semang Paya reside on the plains or edges of morasses ; the Semang Bukit are the occupants of hills ; the Semang Bakow are near the sea, iu the creeks, and where the mangroves grow ; the Semang Bila are partly civilised.
The Sakai and Alias tribes of Perak have curly but not woolly hair.
The Semang use the sumpitan, are skilful fowlers and hunters, and subsist on their game and on forest roots. They capture and eat the elephant, rhinoceros, monkeys, and rats.
Newbold (i. p. 421) remarked that the Semaug and Udai are said to resemble the Papuan in colour, features, and hair, but adds that among all the tribes of these aborigines that had fallen under his notice, he had never met with the peculiar features that distinguish the Negro of Papua. In this remark lie is not in accord with other observers.
According to Sir S. Rallies and Mr. Anderson, the Semang of Kedah has the woolly hair, pro tuberant belly, thick lips, black skin, flat nose, and receding forehead of the Papuan.
The people of Kedah more often approximate to the eastern Negro type than in southern Malaya, and Mr. Logan was particularly struck with the repeated occurrence of the deep nasal depression of the Semang, the Australians, and Papuans. Small heads, with all the features as it were contracted or compressed, were common.