The Negritos of Malaya

Ivor Evans, Ivor H. N. Evans

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367183431
• eBook ISBN: 9780429590474
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Published in 1937. This book, written by the well-known authority on the ethnology and archaeology of the Malay Peninsula, presents a compact and detailed account of the Negritos, one of the three paga races of the Peninsula. It brings up to date much of the previous work on this subject, and deals with all aspects of their character and environment. By way of introduction, there is a general description of the geography and development of the Peninsula, together with a discussion of statistics concerning the tribe's distribution, their health, habitat, and territories. The author then examines the various aspects of their everyday life, including social and domestic customs, hunting, agriculture, dress, ornamentation, musical instruments, and art, as well as their religious beliefs and superstitions. The chapters on their weapons are particularly detailed and informative, and the book is supported throughout by useful illustrations.

Although many further studies of this area and its people have been made since the first publication of this book in 1937, its methodical and careful documentation has yet to be superseded, and it remains indispensable to all students of anthropology and sociology.

CHAPTER I

THE GEOGRAPHY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. NEGRITO DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT

IN writing about one of the pagan races of the Malay Peninsula, the Negritos, it is perhaps necessary to give a short sketch of the country in general, so that it may be seen how these primitive people fit into the picture.

The Malay Peninsula is a long projection from S.E. Asia, narrow at first, but becoming tumid towards the end. Burma and Siam, to its N.W. and N.E. respectively, meet, the first continuing into it as the Tenasserim Province, while Siam extends into it as well, and much farther south, occupying the whole of its breadth after the Tenasserim Province has been left behind.

Below S. Peninsular Siam, filling the broadest part of the Peninsula, are various Malay States under British protection. Four of these (Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Pahang) are federated, while the others (Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan, Trengganu and Johore), though their rulers have received “British Advisers”, remain outside the federation.

To the south of Johore, the southernmost state, lies the island of Singapore and this, with the town and territory of Malacca (on the west coast towards the south) and Penang Island and the adjacent territory of Province Wellesley (on the west coast towards the north), forms the British Colony of the Straits Settlements.

The west coast states of British Malaya, reading from north to south, are Perlis, Kedah, Perak, Selangor and Negri Sembilan with, as remarked above, Johore in the extreme south. The east coast states are Kelantan, Trengganu and Pahang.

West coast and east coast railway lines start from Singapore and after passing, as one line, over the Johore causeway and as far as Gemas, on the Johore-Negri Sembilan boundary, divide and, having traversed British Malaya, eventually reunite at Haad Yai in S. Peninsular Siam, whence the line proceeds to Bangkok and N. Siam, but throwing off two branches eastward at Bangkok, the longer reaching the boundary of French Indo-China. The west coast line of British Malaya has some short side branches.

A main road, with branches, extends from Singapore up the western side of the Peninsula to Perlis, the northernmost state of British Malaya, whence there is road communication also with Singgora on the east coast of S. Peninsular Siam. Kuala Lipis, the capital of Pahang, which is also on the eastern railway line, can be reached by two roads through the main range of hills, one branching from the western road at Kuala Lumpur, the other at Kuala Kubu. From Kuala Lipis the east coast can be gained, at Kuantan, by the Benta-Kuantan road.

Far the most notable topographical feature of Malaya is the main range alluded to above. This jungle-covered backbone of the country lies far nearer to the west coast than to the east. In the south it breaks down somewhat, as also in the north, but appears again in the latter direction, fairly well developed, in the Trang and Patalung Provinces of S. Peninsular Siam. The main range forms, in some cases, a boundary between the western and eastern Malay States.

The states of the western side of the Peninsula, speaking generally, have been more exploited than those of the east. It is in Perak and Selangor that most of the tin mines are found,¹ while rubber has been extensively planted in these two states and in Negri Sembilan ; so, too, in Johore. The same statement about planting is true for S. Kedah, on the west, and for Pahang, on the east, but, in the latter case, the area under rubber is small in comparison with the size of the state.

Where land has been alienated for planting on a large scale and for mining, local labour has proved insufficient and there has been a great influx of foreign Asiatic population, mostly of the labouring classes, but not entirely so, since this influx has also made work for traders, professional men and others. The chief contributors to the influx have been Chinese, from the southern maritime provinces of their country, and Southern Indians. The former are chiefly tin miners or unskilled workers, artisans, and, in the towns which have sprung up in connection with the two major industries, shopkeepers, professional men, etc., though some are large or small estate owners, mine owners and labourers on estates. The latter are mostly estate labourers and rubber tappers, workers on the railway or under the Public Works Department, or, in the higher grades, estate owners, professional men, clerks, money-lenders and shopkeepers. It may be remarked here that with the mechanization of the tin industry (dredges instead of the old open-cast mines) and the lessened labour force required on that account, the Chinese mining element has decreased considerably.

Numerous representatives of many other peoples have also entered Malaya, attracted by better pay or prospects than they could expect in their own countries. Among them are Northern Indians (Sikhs, Pathans, Punjabi Mohammedans and others), foreign Malays (mostly from Sumatra), Banjarese (also Malayan, from Banjar Masin in Dutch Borneo), Boyanese (Malayans from the Dutch island of Bawean), Japanese, Sinhalese, Siamese and all sorts of oddments, including some Arabs. Added to all these there are the Europeans, mostly British (Government officers, rubber planters, miners, merchants, doctors, lawyers, etc.), and a not very big resident Eurasian population.

So far, I have said nothing of the native Malays. They were, and are, largely peasant proprietors, rice-growers naturally, but, in certain districts, rubber, formerly very remunerative, has displaced rice. On the coasts they are fishermen, but sometimes plant rice as well.

Before the arrival of the British and before the days when tin and rubber yielded revenue, though tin always produced something in that regard for Malay rulers and nobles, there were no roads in the country. The rivers, supplemented by tracks, often short cuts, were the natural highways of the country. The Malay, therefore, generally lived close to a large river, though, where the population was fairly numerous, he spread to the tributaries and even to the twigs of the river system. Not only was the river his highway, but it provided him with fish to eat and water to irrigate his crops of wet-growing rice in the valley bottoms, while on the hill sides above the stream he could obtain such jungle produce as he required or make a clearing to plant dry-growing rice and root crops. Even to-day the Malay population is usually thickest along river valleys, such as those of the Perak and the Pahang Rivers.

Take it all in all, the Malay peasant has altered remarkably little. His life and property are now safe, as never before, he no longer carries weapons, he is better dressed, possibly better fed and housed, he rides a bicycle, takes a seat in the cars which ply for hire over the excellent Malayan roads, or travels by rail, but the village cycle of marriages, births and deaths, sowings, plantings and reapings, still continues. His definite religious profession of Mohammedanism prevents rapid change in his ideas, and even the older layers of belief, Hinduism and animism, that underlie his orthodox faith still persist to a considerable extent.

The strip of country between the main range and the west coast, mostly alluvial, is, as noted previously, in great part under cultivation of one kind or another, or, in places, in the hands of the tin-mining industry. The main range itself still remains, in spite of a road or two through it in its south central part and the recently developed hill resort at Cameron Highlands, to which a road leads from Tapah, jungle-covered and almost unpenetrated except by Sakai aboriginals (if one may so call them) who make it their home. In the north of the state of Perak, before the main range breaks down, there is a good deal of hilly jungle-covered country, consisting, more or less, of spurs or outlying ranges given off from the massif, including one parallel range of some size west of the Perak River. On the east, too, much of the states of Kelantan and Pahang, especially S. and S.W. Kelantan and N. and N.W. Pahang, are occupied by mountainous and hilly jungle-covered country.

The trend of the main range being more or less north and south, the rivers which descend from it flow, chiefly, east and west, and, on the western side of the country, these rivers have, in many cases, been much damaged by tin mining, their waters being turbid and their beds choked with tailings.

The west coast, along the Straits of Malacca, is fringed, nearly everywhere, by mangrove swamps, these often extending for several miles in breadth. Through the swamps the lower reaches of the rivers wind their way. The mangrove belt tends to extend itself seaward on detritus brought down by the rivers.

The east coast, against which the China Sea thunders in the N.E. Monsoon, from about October to March, has sandy beaches with formidable bars at the river mouths, dangerous to cross, even in Malay boats, during this period, so much so, indeed, that the Monsoon is referred to by the Pahang Malays as musim kuala tutup, “the season when the river mouths are closed”.

Malayan jungle is not easy to describe. Its chief features are, I think, huge greyish tree trunks (in some species with enormous buttresses), masses of rather sad-coloured foliage, meeting overhead and making the light in the forest somewhat dim, but giving grateful coolness, and an undergrowth of bushes with occasional rattan, or other, palms. This undergrowth is usually fairly dense, but rarely so dense that it is absolutely necessary to chop a way through it when travelling. Patches of bamboo jungle occur in some districts and the usual sage-green foliage of the forest, when viewed on a hill side, is sometimes relieved by trees whose leaves are of an arsenical hue. On the trunks of the trees, especially on those which are dead or dying, are all sorts of epiphytes, while lianas dangle like ropes here and there. Flowers are seldom seen. Those that there are, are usually at the tops of the trees, where sunlight reaches them.

Big animals are not commonly encountered, though their tracks are sometimes to be observed where they are to be found, which is by no means everywhere, for, for one reason and another, they are local in their distribution. Where they still live, and even in places where they existed in former times, game tracks along ridges, which the animals have for centuries used as paths, much facilitate the passage of human travellers. In other places tracks made by the jungle people can sometimes be found and utilized. Butterflies are common only where a stream or river makes a break in the sombre body of the forest. Snakes are rarely encountered.

Of the larger animals which frequent our Malayan forests the following may be mentioned: the elephant, the two-horned Sumatran rhinoceros, the one-horned Javan rhinoceros (almost extinct), the Malayan tapĭr, the sĕladang (Bos gaurus), the sambhur deer, the barking deer and the mouse deer, the serow (chiefly in the jungle on limestone hills), wild pig, tiger, black and spotted leopard, sun bears, porcupines, the binturong, the scaly anteater, gibbons, macaque monkeys (two species), leaf-monkeys and the hunting dog. The mangrove swamps of the west coast have tiger, deer and pig and, of course, crocodile (Crocodilus porosus) in the estuaries of the rivers.

Birds are of many species, some of them of gorgeous plumage, but are seldom noticed in jungle country unless by those who use their eyes in search of them or their ears to listen for their notes. The call of the beautiful argus pheasant is, however, an accompaniment to the mists of early morning, as are the ululations of the gibbons among the tree tops. Otherwise of birds we may see, or hear (especially if we are in a river valley), only some hornbills of one of the several species flying off with their strange cries and the creak of their wings, a kingfisher flashing by, or a hawk perched motionless on a dead tree waiting for some prey to show itself.

Where the jungle has been felled and burnt, as where Malays or some of the jungle people have planted hill-growing rice and Caladiums, growth of a shrubby nature springs up as soon as the clearing is deserted, and this quickly gives place to a secondary growth of soft-wood trees, but it must be many years before those hard-wood trees that grow in virgin jungle can re-establish themselves and reach any size. The growths of grass, scrub and secondary jungle on deserted clearings are a good deal frequented by deer and pig, and even by elephant and sĕladang where these animals occur.

The Malays, who are not by nature jungle men, chiefly inhabit, as I have remarked previously, the valleys, large or small, which afford them level alluvial soil for their wet rice crops which can then be irrigated without much difficulty. The hills which subtend such valleys are generally jungle-covered.

The Malay village, nearly always pleasant to the eye, with its palm-leaf-thatched houses walled with sheet bamboo, woven bamboo, thatch or tree bark, usually stands on a river bank or on a slight elevation among the rice fields and in a grove of fruit and other trees—coconuts, durians, rambutans, areca palms and sago palms. The last furnish not only sago, but also the best leaves obtainable for thatch-making. A rude mosque will be found in the village, a long building, very likely of similar construction to that of the houses, but partly open along the sides. A large drum calls the faithful to prayers.

Photo: specially taken for the author

LANOH NEGRITO MEN AND YOUTHS OF LENGGONG, UPPER PERAK
Two with blowpipes. The dart-quiver worn by the second man from the left is of the type made by the Negrito-Sakai (Pleh) of the trans-Perak River hills. The objects protruding from the waist-cloths of the man on the left of the picture and the man standing second from the right are the handles of working-knives.

The village,¹ unless remote, as some are, especially in the eastern states, may, or may not, be on a bridle path through the rice fields, which connects with a main road; if not, the banks between the rice plots serve as paths. Somewhere on the road, near or far, there will be a small township of Chinese shops, a few general shops stocking rice, dried fish, tobacco, matches, European-made cigarettes, cloth, cheap tinned goods, knives, needles, cotton, working-knife blades, cooking pots, sweets, beads, combs, Japanese beer, cheap mineral waters, kerosene, cheap lamps, biscuits and a truly wonderful variety of other goods. If the settlement is, comparatively speaking, large, there will also be a barber’s shop, a shop for the sale of spirituous liquors both European and Chinese (sale not allowed to Mohammedans and to labouring class Southern Indians), a billiard saloon of sorts, a pawnshop (Chinese kept), coffee-shops where light refreshment can be obtained and an eating shop or two, kept either by Chinese or by Mohammedan Indians, where more substantial meals can be served. A tailor’s shop and a jeweller’s will also very likely be found.

The shops are usually two-storey brick and plaster buildings, the windows below being closed by removable shutters at night. In front of a row of shops there is almost invariably a covered way—called by the Malays “the five-foot way”—the plastered brick pillars of which are flush with the upper storey, the open shop windows on the ground floor being set back in consequence. This covered way provides grateful shelter for shoppers, affording protection from heat and rain. Between the road and the five-foot way is a deep brick drain which carries off surface water and refuse. This is bridged, often by stone slabs, opposite the shop doors. Here and there in the country, too, in or near Malay villages, will be found small Chinese general shops, singly, or possibly one or two together.

A car park, containing motor cars for hire, is to be seen in almost every settlement of any size. The drivers wait till their cars have filled up with passengers for destinations along their chosen routes, and then depart. If their conveyances are not quite full when they leave, they take up a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Preface
• Table of Contents
• Chapter I The Geography and Development of the Malay Peninsula. Negrito Distribution and Habitat
• Chapter II Numbers, Health, Territories
• Chapter III Groups, Group Names, Government
• Chapter IV Intercourse with Malays and Foreigners
• Chapter V General Appearance, Personal Character
• Chapter VI Dwellings
• Chapter VII Household Utensils, Food, Cooking, Agriculture, Hunting and Fishing, Narcotics, Fire-Making
• Chapter VIII Clothing, Ornaments, Hairdressing
• Chapter IX Face-Painting, Mutilations, Tattooing
• Chapter X Weapons—the Bow and Arrow and the Blowpipe
• Chapter XI Weapons (continued)—Dart-quivers, Darts, Shooting with the Blowpipe, the Poison and its Effects
• Chapter XII Musical Instruments, Singing, Dancing
• Chapter XIII Negrito Art
• Chapter XIV The Negrito Deities
• Chapter XV The Negrito Deities (continued)
• Chapter XVI The Creation of the World, the Origin of the Negritos, the Sun, the Moon, the Rainbow, Rain
• Chapter XVII Thunder, Lightning, Tabus and Punishment Tales page
• Chapter XVIII The Pillar that Supports the Heavens
• Chapter XIX The Shaman
• Chapter XX The Shaman (continued)
• Chapter XXI Various Folk-lore Beliefs and Customs
• Chapter XXII Folk-Tales
• Chapter XXIII Birth, Naming, Marriage, Relationship Tabus, etc.
• Chapter XXIV The Afterworld
• Chapter XXV Death and Burial
• Chapter XXVI Linguistics
• Chapter XXVII Bodily Powers and Physical Anthropology
• Appendix I Prehistory and the Negritos
• Appendix II Relationship Terms
• Appendix III Kintak Bong Chart of Heaven and the Underworld
• Appendix IV List of Negrito Words identified in the Comparative Vocabularies in Volume II of Pagan Races, with References
• Appendix V On a Paper regarding the Pleh-Temiar
• Appendix VI A Note on the Negritos of the Tanom River, Pahang
• Bibliography
• Index
• Map