Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

344 NATURAL RELIGION AND FOLK-LORE part in
All the different tribes of aborigines were said to
be merely subdivisions of an (assumed) original
Mantra stock, who were also alleged to exist in the
country of Menangkabau, unless (says the Batin) they
have possibly turned Malay/
Another Version of the Creation of Man.
According to another version of the creation
(recorded by Borie), the Mantra were all descended
from two white apes (" ungka putih"). These having
reared their young ones, sent them forth into the
plains, where for the most part they developed so
rapidly that they and their descendants became men.
Those, however, who returned to the mountains still
remained apes," Others say that apes are degraded
men.^
Legend of the Peopling of the Peninsula.
In an age gone by, of which they do not even
know the century, a Mantra chief, named Batin Alam
(" King of the Universe "), constructed a large and
beautiful vessel and set sail for [sic ? from) Rum {i.e.
Constantinople).* This ship not only sailed with
great rapidity but possessed the wonderful property
of propelling itself It anchored, after several days'
voyage, in what was then a small port (since named
Malacca). In this ship had been brought all the requi-
site materials for founding a colony. The immigrants
' Hervey '\x\ J. R. A. S., S. B., No. built by God, which was set floating
lo, pp. 193, 194. Cp. p. 291, ait/e. on the waters of the earth. The ship
^ Borie (tr. Bourien), p. 73. sailed with fearful rapidity round and
3 Misc. Ess. rel. Indo-Chhia, sec. about the earth till it grounded on one of
ser. vol. i. p. 288. the mountains of the peninsula, where
* Of a "Mantra tribe behind Mt. they declare it is still to be seen." Our
Ophir" John Cameron writes : " They 'Jropical Possessions in Malayan India,
say their fathers came originally from j). 113. A limestone cave legend.
heaven in a large and magnificent ship Cp. Hervey in Man, 1904, 14.