long been known that the civilized agricultural inhabitants of the shores of this last island spoke a Malay language; 27 but in the mountains of the interior there is a savage warlike tribe, called by the Chinese Chinwan, or "barbarous savages." They were supposed to be akin to the Philippine population. Schetelig, who first investigated their language, came to the conclusion that these Chinwans have only borrowed a sixth part of their vocabulary from their Malay neighbours, from whom they differ otherwise in language, and are physically closely allied to the continental people of China. 28 It might have been supposed that the vast tract of the Indian Ocean, destitute of islands, would have set a limit on the west to the migratory impulse of the Malays. The similarity of Malagassic and Malayan words was observed both by Sir Joseph Banks, who as botanist accompanied Captain Cook on his first voyage, and by Hervàs, the philologist; but it is only since Wilhelm von Humboldt's researches in the Kawi language that the fact has been established that, while the islands of Rodriguez, Mauritius, and Bourbon were found uninhabited at the time of their discovery by European seafarers, Madagascar was peopled by Malays.29 Traces of the custom of taboo occur there, for by a Kiady which is a tuft of grass on the point of an erect pole, the guardians of the fetishes are able to prevent any intrusion on the part of unconsecrated persons into the holy places. 30 No tradition has been preserved among the Malagassees themselves, although their immigration may have been much more recent than the separation of the Polynesians from their Asiatic kindred. According to Ellis, 3 the Hovas of Madagascar in smelting iron ore use a sort of bellows with two bamboo tubes, through which alternately the air is expelled by the motion of a pump. This ingenious invention occurs nowhere 27 Latham, Opuscula. 28 Schetelig, in the Zeitschrift für Völkerphysiologie and Sprachwissenschaft, vol. v. 29 Banks in Hawksworth, Discoveries in the South Sea, 1773. Hervàs Catálogo de las Lengues; Madrid, 1800. W. von Humboldt, Ueber die Kawisprache. 1836. 30 Lieutenant Oliver, Journal of the Anthropological Society. 1868. 31 Three Visits to Madagascar. else except in the Malay islands; and Tylor 32 therefore seems justified in the impression that the colonization of Madagascar took place only after the working of iron was practised in the Sunda Islands. In connection with this circumstance, it is noticeable that the Hovas breed the zebu, or Indian buffalo, though the indigenous cattle of Madagascar are like the African species.33 If with this we connect the fact that the inhabitants of the southern coast of Ceylon and of the Maledives speak the Malay language, this throws some light on the way by which the ancestors of the Hovas reached Madagascar. It is very difficult to estimate rightly the natural capabilities for social organization of the Asiatic Malays, for they lost their independence at an early period. First Brahminical and, later, Buddhist settlers brought to Java 34 Indian learning, Indian religious arts, and Indian characters, as well as a chronology; nor were Sumatra and the peninsula of Malacca unaffected by their influence. On the extinction of Buddhism the old temples on the Sunda Islands fell into ruins. Since that time the Malays have adopted Islam, the precepts of which now constitute the framework of social justice. The oldest events of their written history point to a kingdom in Sumatra of which Menang-Kabao was the centre, and whence seafaring adventurers started, nominally in the year 1160 A.D., to establish themselves at Singapore. From that time it was mainly the Arabs who imparted their culture to the nations of the Sunda Islands. The Dyaks of Borneo and the warlike Batta of Sumatra have alone remained almost untouched by foreign influences. The former in their self-evolution have scarcely raised themselves higher than the Polynesians. Until stopped by Rajah Sir James Brooke, the primitive custom of taking heads was in force amongst them, a custom probably characteristic of all Asiatic Malays, for it has recently been observed by Bechtinger in Formosa 35 and in the fifteenth century it still prevailed among the 32 Early History of Mankind, p. 215. 33 Lieutenant Oliver, Journal of the Anthropological Society. Schweinfurth has however shown that the buffalo occurs in every part of the Soudan. the Heart of Africa, vol. i. p. 63. 34 Friedrich Müller, Reise der Fregatte Novara, Anthropologie. 35 Ausland. 1872. In Habits of Asiatic Malays. 357 Batta in Sumatra.36 The meaning of this strange custom of procuring from anywhere, by force or craft, a head or skull, which was taken as a precious possession to the grave, is explained by the popular superstition, that in the abode of the departed the former owner of the skull would be the slave of its later proprietor.37 We have already assigned due credit to the Batta, who are cannibals, for having invented an alphabet of their own, though it is merely an imitation of the Indian characters.38 The Asiatic Malay is reserved, taciturn, obsequious to superiors, harsh to inferiors, cruel, revengeful, and susceptible to insult, yet, on the other hand, he is gentle to children, dignified, and polished in manners. Wallace, who lived for a long time among both Malays and Papuans, considers the latter to be the more highly gifted race. We find the third group of Malays east of the Philippines, and north of or close upon the equator, in the Marianas, the Pelew group, the Carolines, as well as on the Ralik, Rádik, and Gilbert Atolls. Recently they have all been given the name of Micronesians. The inhabitants of these islands are hybrids of Polynesians and Papuans, but in language, customs, and social institutions, they are Polynesian. Among the inhabitants of the Pelew Islands, however, Papuan blood predominates, so that they should not be classed in the Malay race. But further east, the type becomes more Polynesian, though even at the extreme limit of the region which they inhabit, the Micronesians are distinguished from the pure Polynesians by the frizzliness of their hair, while on approaching Japan oblique setting of the eyes grows more frequent. 39 Among Asiatic as well as Polynesian Malays, dolichocephals are very rare; when they occur, as in the Carolines, they only confirm the statement that the Micronesians must be regarded as a hybrid people. The cranial index of breadth in Polynesian, is, however, perceptibly lower than in the case of Asiatic Malays, hence the 36 Kunstmann, Indien im 15 Jahrhundert. former rank among the mesocephals, the latter among the brachycephals.40 In both divisions of the Malay family, the height of the skull is as great or perhaps a little greater than the breadth.41 Prognathism is moderate in degree, but the zygomatic arches are more or less prominent. All the nations of this family have a dark but. never a completely black skin; while among the Asiatic Malays it is of a dirty yellow hue. The characters which they have in common with other members of the Mongolian race are black straight hair on the head, and a scanty growth of beard and of hair on the body, the latter being, moreover, artificially removed. The nearer their abode to the continent of Asia, the more frequent is the oblique setting of the eyes. In this they very closely resemble the populations of the eastern portions of the Old World. Not only have they more resemblance to them than to any other races of mankind, but no distinct line of difference can be drawn between them, as the types merge into one another. Hence a Chinese origin has been wrongly ascribed to the inhabitants on the Nias and Battu islands, on the west coast of Sumatra.42 Semper, to account for resemblances in various tribes in the Phillipines and among the Iraya to the Japanese and Chinese, supposes an admixture of blood, although he admits that " only in a few cases some slight historical evidence can be found." 43 Wallace decides the matter when he writes,44 "I was much struck when, in the island of Bali, I saw Chinese traders who had adopted the costumes of that country, and who could then hardly be distinguished from Malays, and, on the other hand, I have seen natives of Java who, as far as physiognomy was concerned, would pass very well for Chinese." Latham speaks of the physical characters of the Malays as "truly Indo-Chinese," 45 and in another passage he says that the Mongolian type is more marked in the Micronesians than in the Chinese,46 which can, however, be admitted only in regard to the inhabitants of the Marianas. We believe, with 40 Comp. the tables of Barnard Davis, Thesaurus Craniorum, and above. 41 This character is more conspicuous in Welcker's measurement than in B. Davis's, but only because the latter measured the "greatest breadth." 42 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. v. 43 Die Philippinen. 44 The Malay Archipelago, vol. ii. p. 453. 45 Man and his Migrations. 46 Varieties of Man. Classification of Malays. 359 Moritz Wagner, that the shape of skull, the form and colour of the face, as well as the whole physical constitution of the Malay race, is so nearly allied to the Mongolian that, in similar apparel, the two races are hardly distinguishable. We shall therefore not be contradicted if we class the Malay race among the Mongoloid nations. Yet their linguistic characters entitle them to a separate place. We subdivide them into Micronesian hybrid nations and Polynesians, or, if it be preferred, into Pacific and Asiatic Malays. The latter are better subdivided again, as by Frederick Müller, into-1. The inhabitants of the Philippines, termed Tagals and Bisaya; 2. the Malays in the restricted sense, as inhabitants of the peninsula of Malacca, and in Sumatra, the Atchinese, Passumahs, Rejangs, and Lampongs; 3. the Sundanese in the west; 4. the Javans in the eastern part of Java; 5. the Batta in Sumatra ; 6. the Dyaks of Borneo; 7. the Macassars and Buginese in the island of Celebes. Lastly, this race includes scattered members settled in the islands of Formosa, Ceylon, and Madagascar. II.-SOUTHERN ASIATICS WITH MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. To this group belong primarily the inhabitants of the eastern peninsula of India, whom we will speak of as Malayo-Chinese, rather than by their inappropriate epithet of Indo-Chinese. With these are allied the people of Thibet and the southern slopes of the Himalayas on the west, and the Chinese on the north and north-east. They all have straight, black hair, very little beard or hair on the body, a coloured skin, usually of a leather yellow, and obliquely set eyes. Narrow skulls are extremely rare amongst them. According to their index of breadth these nations rank in part among the mesocephals, and in part among the brachycephals. The height of the head is either equal to its breadth, or not infrequently surpasses it. Prognathism is not universal, and is always moderate in degree. But very few skulls have been measured. Even Barnard Davis had at his disposal only twentyone Chinese heads of both sexes, a very insufficient number, by *Tu tien X1357 |