Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

I RACE-CHARACTERS OF NEGRITOS 43
(i) Semang + Sakai, or " Semang-Sakai,"
(2) Semang + Jakun, or " Semang-Jakun,"
(3) Sakai + Jakun, or " Sakai-Jakun,"
and further crosses arising from the various mixed
races thus produced.^
I.
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Race-Characters of Semang.
The Semang country runs (roughly speaking) from
Chaiya" and Ulu Patani (Singora and Patalung) to
Kedah in the north of the Peninsula, and thence to
mid-Perak and Northern Pahang.
Wallace^ states that the height of the Semang
varies between 1266 mm. and 14 16 mm. This latter
figure is, however, certainly too low.
Martin lays stress on the fact that the sexual
difference in height is actually greater in tribes of
small stature {i.e. Semang and Senoi) than it is
amongst taller tribes of the wild races, especially,
e.g., among the Blandas, His rough estimate of the
average height of a male Semang is about the same
as that of a Sakai (1500 mm.). De Morgan says the
Semang are the taller, but the fact is doubtful.'^
The following account of the physical characters
of the Peninsular Negritos includes measurements"
taken by Mr. Laidlaw and myself in the Ulu Lebih
district of Kelantan, and by myself at Jarum :
^ That the foregoing statement of that any stranger who, while staying
the case is the true one, appears even in a Jakun house, was able to talk the
from the remarks of Vaughan-Stevens husband off to sleep, acquired thereby
himself, when he says that " Half- an acknowledged right to usurp his
bloods, with Malay or Chinese fathers, marital privileges for the lime being.
are quite unknown among the wild - W. Smyth's Five Years in Siani,
tribes, but that such admixture is per- ii. 76.
mitted, although 7iot liked, by those
clans who live in close contact with
•"' Quoted by Lane-Fox, J. A. I.
437
vii.
; cp. y. R. A. S., S. B., No. 7.
the Malays" (V. B. G. A. xxiii. 833). * For measurements, see LHonnne,
Mr. Hale, on the other hand, in- ii. 552 ; and Wray, Per. Mus. N. iii.
forms me that among the Malays in pp. 33-35.
N. Sembilan it was an accepted belief ' Given in extenso in Appendix.
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