Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

SAVAGE MALAYS OF JOHOR
To this imperfect sketch of the character of the
Benua it should be added that although less sensitive
in their feelings than the Berembun tribes, whose
pride takes offence at the least appearance of a slight
or assumption of control, they would probably show
themselves reserved, unsocial, and even sullen if they
were not treated with kindness and respect. They
are less distrustful, less changeful, and more robust in
their character than the Berembun tribes, who require
to be humoured like children, and. if they are not so
treated, easily convince themselves that they are
wronged, neglected, or treated with a want of con-
sideration. Like children, too, they are very suscep-
tible to flattery.^
It is this excessive sensitiveness both to flattery
and slight which seems to supply that psychological
link between the aborigines and the Malays, which at
the first contemplation of the great difference between
them, seems to be wanting. Civilisation has deprived
the Malay of the openness and simplicity of the
Benua, and hardened him. But although he has
substituted for a total want of manner one of the most
strongly marked manners possessed by any race, his
pristine sensitiveness is covered, not conquered. It
is indeed the secret of much that is peculiar in his
social deportment. That art of putting everything
in a pleasing point of view, of softening and concealing
the natural asperities of a subject under discussion,
of rendering even that which in other hands might
wound the self-love of the person addressed, the
medium of a compliment—an art in which thi; well-bred
Malay is unsurpassed and which the combined soft-
ness, frankness, and simple dignity of his manner so
' /. I. A. vol. i. pp. 267, 268.