Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

536 DEALINGS WITH OTHER RACES part ii
Mr. Bellamy adds that although they hold such a
low position in the scale of society, yet they are
perfectly happy and contented. Their earthly bliss is
contained, as they themselves will tell you, in " eating,
working, and sleeping," and they ask for nothing more.
Meet them where you will, either in their wretched
huts, in the jungle gathering fruit or honey, by the
seaside fishing, or anywhere else, they are always
ready with a cheery response to your salutation.^
It is certain that they have never possessed
an alphabet of their own, though they do possess
the tradition of a sacred volume (" Kitab""-^) which is
said to have been destroyed by fire many years ago.
But to describe them as children, or to assume
that their brain is in a state of arrested development,
is by no means an adequate statement of the case.
They will work very hard and very rapidly for short
intervals, even on their own account, and when
" sweated " by the Malays who compel them to collect
jungle produce, etc., they will often work, literally
like " slaves," for a long while together. The fact
that they have picked up agriculture when they might
have got sufficient to supply all their wants from the
forest, and had been in the habit of so doing for
hundreds of years, shows that they are not incapable
of progress. I have even known a small group of
Besisi families take to the planting of Liberian coffee,
whilst others have leased land from the government,
have done road -work for government officers, and
have even acquired such industries as that of the
blacksmith. I think, in fact, that it can safely be said
that the Malays can do very little that the Besisi, if
taken young enough, and with equal advantages,
' Bellamy, p. 228. - Ibid. p. 227 ; and cp. 378, 391, ante.
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