ofthe SAME TREE

the son of the powerful Bugis Raja Muda of Johor, was installed by the Perak
ruler as the first sultan of Selangor. 128 Perak’s close relations with the Bugis
dynasty in Selangor may have added a Bugis interpretation to the significance
of white blood.
The close relationship between the Orang Asli and the Malayu depicted
in the tales may account for the sharing of legendary heroes. Writing in the
early twentieth century, Skeat and Blagden describe an Orang Asli tale from
the Malay Peninsula of a batin called Chief Iron Claws (Batin Berchanggei
Besi). After his death, his position is taken by Hang Tuah, the batin of Pengkalan
Tampoi in Kelang. He and his sons, Hang Jebat and Hang Ketuwi (Kasturi
in Malayu), and their descendants become the founding batin in Sungai
Ujong, Kelang, Johor, and Melaka. 129 In the Semai chermor, among the retainers
of the Malayu ruler of Melaka are the Orang Asli brothers, Hang Tuah
and Hang Jebat. Later there is a quarrel between the brothers, which results
in the death of Hang Jebat. Hang Tuah, accompanied by his wife’s family and
those of Hang Jebat, as well as the Orang Asli from Gunung Ledang, moves
northward and settles in the area. Part of the group remains in central Perak
and comes to be known as mai bareh (i.e., the lowland Semai), while Hang
Tuah proceeds farther northward and becomes the leader of the Orang Asli
in upper Perak. The last group eventually settles in an area now called Lambor.
130 In these Orang Asli stories, Hang Tuah, Hang Jebat, and Hang Kasturi
are important early leaders of the Orang Asli community. They are also well
known in Malayu folklore and in two of the most popular works of Malayu
literature, the Sejarah Malayu and the Hikayat Hang Tuah. In the former they
are archetypal Malayu heroes, while in the latter they are associated with the
islands and implied to be of sakai or Orang Laut origins.
Another notable feature in Orang Asli tales is the role of Sumatra, particularly
Minangkabau and the legendary royal center of Pagaruyung. According
to the tale collected by Skeat and Blagden, Chief Iron Claws leaves Minangkabau
with his followers and goes first to Java, where some of his people remain
behind, and then to Melaka, which was then uninhabited. One of his descendants
in Kelang gives his daughter in marriage to a downriver Minangkabau
chief. 131 A Biduanda creation myth collected by Hood Salleh also has a Sumatran
connection. According to this tale, the origin of the group is attributed
to Batin Sri Alam who seized a “walking tree trunk” and kept it in captivity.
The trunk then produced forty-four eggs, which the batin then buried until
they hatched into forty-four children. When they grew up he supplied them
with bark cloth for clothes. Half of these children he sent to Sumatra, where
they colonized the coast “as far as the borders of the Batak country” (i.e., in
the interior of Sumatra), while the other half remained on the peninsula and
became the Biduanda. 132
The Orang Asli/Suku Terasing and the Malayu 229