Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

LANGUAGE 487
Possibly some of Logan's manuscript collections may still be in existence,
either in the possession of his descendants at Penang, or in the Logan Collec-
tion in tlie Raffles Library at Singapore : if so, they would be worth publishing.
The short vocabularies of the Malacca Mantra or MfintSra, collected by Borie
and De Castelnau, call for no special remark. The first was first published in
an account of the Mantra which appeared in the 'fijihchriji voor Indischc Taal-
Land- en Volkenkiinde (1861), vol. x. pp. 413-443, and of which a revised
version was printed in vol. i. of the second series of Miscellaneous Papers
rela/hi^ io Indo-Cliina and the Indian Archipelago {1887), pp. 303, 304. I
have preferred the revised version, but added the words contained in the earlier
version, where the two differed. De Castelnau's vocabulary appeared in the
Revue de Philologie et d'Ethnographic (1876), vol. ii. pp. 142, 143. The orthography
of both Borie and De Castelnau is somewhat influenced by the French
nationality of the two collectors.
Somewhere about this period, I think, must be placed the two Semang
vocabularies contained in MS. No. 29 of the collection of Malay books bequeathed
to the Royal Asiatic Society by the late Sir W. E. Maxwell.
Some account of this manuscript was given by me in the Journal of that
Society for July 1902, pp. 557-566, and a further note (mainly by S. H. Ray)
on its contents (other than the two Semang vocabularies) will be found in the
number for January 1903, pp. 167-179. The MS. is partly made up of paper
bearing a water-mark dated 1850, and I conjecture that it was probably acquired
by Maxwell in Perak soon after 1875. At any rate it is rather a curiosity, being
written entirely in the Arabic character, apparently by one or more Malays,^ and
it contains a comparative vocabulary of Malay, two Semang dialects, Madurese,
the Tulehu dialect of Amboyna in the Moluccas, and the Makua language of
South - Eastern Africa. I came across it in making a rough catalogue of the
Maxwell bequest for the Royal Asiatic Society, and subsequently, by the courtesy
of the Council, was enabled to keep it for a considerable time with a view to deciphering
and copying the two Semang lists for the purposes of the present work.
These Semang lists are mostly in pencil and rather badly written, but are
fairly long vocabularies ;
they contain a great many repetitions, Malay loan words,
and, probably, blunders. Nevertheless they are decidedly a valuable addition
to the material in hand, and are of special interest, as one of them, a " low
country " dialect of the " Semang Paya " of Ulu Kerian agrees on the whole very
well with the type of Begbie's Semang and Juru Semang (a type of which no more
recent specimen exists, and which is now probably extinct), while the other, a hill
dialect (" Semang liukit "), agrees with the ordinary run of Semang as represented
by the dialects of Kedah, Jarum, etc. This second dialect has also a locality
assigned to it : apparently the hill in qitestion is called Berambar or some such
name, but I cannot identify it on the map. Presumably it is in Northern Perak
or in Kedah. I do not think C. Berumban (lat. 4° 20') can be meant, for that
is in the middle of the Sakai country, and not likely to have been occupied in
recent times by a tribe speaking a Semang dialect.
As these two lists are in the Arabic character and roughly (sometimes illegibly)
written, the transliteration is occasionally doubtful, especially as regards the vowel
sounds. I have therefore given a double transliteration, which is explained below,
and will enable the reader, if necessary, to reconstruct the original script and form
his own idea as to whether my rendering of it correctly represents the sound intended
by the writer.
Miklucho-Maclay, whose exploratory journeys in the Peninsula took place in
1874 and 1875, deserves special mention as the first to give us a specimen of a
Pangan dialect.
^ It may have been compiled at have succeeded in communicating his
the instigation of Logan, who seems to enthusiasm to others.