Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

48 RACIAL AFFINITIES part
veloped, but in older individuals it was often much
scarred, and in two or three cases slightly diseased.
With regard to the skin-colour of the Negritos, Vaughan-Stevens remarks that
among the wilder Semang, or " Menik " (the men of which tribe wear nothing
but a cord or girdle and the women a waist-fringe that lets the light through),
the colour of the skin is very uniform. The W. Semang (? Semang-Sakai
tribes), however, offer nearly as great a variety as the Malays. The Semang
(Menik) did not regard the lighter - coloured Sakai (Blandas) as superiors (!).
Their god Pie was dark like themselves. Although the Semang is of darker
colour than the Sakai (Blandas), and appears to be less influenced by heat, he
(V. -St.) was still of opinion that this capacity for bearing heat arises rather
from his constitution, than from the darker colour of his skin {vide remarks on
this subject as affecting the Sakai, infra).
The pronounced nomadic character of all these tribes makes it impossible to
arrive at any conclusions as to the effect produced by altitude, soil, shade, dust,
or clothes upon the texture and colour of the skin. The family or tribe lives
perhaps for a month upon a hill at an elevation of some thousands of feet above
the sea, next month at the foot of the same hill ; at one time in the thick, dark
jungle, and at another in the hot, open plains.
According to the Malays, the Negritos never wash themselves, and therefore
possess as a rule a powerful odour, and the statement is certainly a true one.
When, for instance, for the sake of the experiment, he (V.-St. ) had induced the
E. Semang (Pangan) to wash themselves with soap, they did not appear to
retain any particular smell afterwards. But when, immediately afterwards, he accompanied
them on a rapid march, and after going some distance from them
had again returned to their company, the odour was distinctly noticeable.*
Si^ht.
The eyes of the Semang that we examined, which
were round, wide-open, and horizontal, were uniformly
of a very rich deep brown in colour ;
in one case only,
that of an old man, they were of a greyish-brown tint.
The Semang as a race were far from being unpleasant-
looking people, the most striking peculiarity in their
appearance being a certain wild look about the region
of the eyes, probably due, in part, to the great width
between them, and to the curious depression of the
upper part of the nose, as well as to a natural rest-
lessness of the eyes themselves, which these tribes
possess in common with wild animals. Their eyesight
appeared to be good of its kind, and in the few cases
that we tested the colour-vision was normal.^
* Z.f. E. xxix. 174-176. are given by Wray, Per. Mus. N.
^ A few sight-statistics of Semang iii. p. 38.