The Natural History of the Varieties of ManLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Science
The Natural History of the Varieties of Man
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Ethnology
The sun, moon, and stars receive much of their regard; perhaps
worship. The two superior spirits of whom they have the most definite
conceptions, are named Dewas and Bilun.
A spirit has his abode in the loftiest mountains. The priests, whose
power is proportionate to the superstition of the natives, are called
Poyangs. The soul of a Poyang after death is believed to enter into
the body of a tiger. They are adepts in the magic arts of Besawye,
Chinderwye, and Tuju; this last enables them to kill their enemies by
the force of spells, however distant. The Besawye consists in burning
incense, muttering spells, and invoking, by night, the spirit of the
mountains.
Their food is the product of the hunt, not of agriculture.
_Udai._--The inhabitants of the forests of the _northern_ part of the
peninsula.
_Semang._--The same. Complexion dark; hair curly and matted, but not
frizzled. This is what Mr. Newbold relates; premising that he had no
opportunity of personally judging. Mr. Anderson and Sir S. Raffles
describe this darkness of complexion in stronger terms.
The Semang of Quedah has the woolly hair, protuberant belly, thick
lips, black skin, flat nose, and receding forehead of the Papuan.
The Semang of Perak is somewhat less rude, and speaks a different
dialect.
More than one Malay informed Mr. Newbold that the Semangs were
essentially the same as the Jokong; having the same hair, but a
somewhat blacker skin.
They live in rude moveable huts, constructed of leaves and branches,
scantily clothed, and fed from the produce of the chase, at which they
are expert. Their government is that of chiefs or elders. The Malays
accuse them of only interring the head, and of eating the rest of the
body, in cases of death.
They dip their weapons in blood when ratifying a solemn oath.
White is the favourite; perhaps, the holy colour.
They are fond of music, and have two native instruments--one like a
violin, one like a flute.
They use the sumpitan, having three modes of preparing the poison.
Their dead are _buried_, sometimes in a sitting posture; generally with
their arrows, sumpitan, and their most familiar utensils in the same
grave.
The remaining aborigines belong to the southern parts of the peninsula.
_Rayet Laut_, or _Orang Akkye_.--Differing from the tribes last
described, only in so far as they are residents of the sea-coast, not
of the interior.
SUMATRA.
The divisions political rather than ethnological--the most
important being the kingdom of Atchin, the Batta country, the
kingdom of Menangkabaw, Rejang, Lampong, and Palembang.
ATCHIN.
_Locality._--The Northern or North-Western parts of Sumatra;
conterminal with the Batta country.
_Religion._--Mahometan.
_Alphabet._--Arabic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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