Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. XI SAVAGE MALAYS OF JOHOR 557
interior of Pahang, and, from their Chinese-like habit
of combining for mutual ends, are growing formidable
to the Pahang Malays. It would appear that they
deal more harshly with the aborigines than the Malays
of the Peninsula, for they are recorded to have
formerly attacked the Mantra and killed some of their
Batins. This proceeding drove many Mantra families
from the neighbourhood, and small colonies found their
way into the British territory at the back of Malacca,
and other places. The Mantra say that they found
resistance in vain, because the Menangkabau Malays
were armed with muskets, and had learnt the use
of antidotes to the ipoh poison, so that the slender
darts of the blowpipe inflicted but little injury upon
them.^
Every outlet from the country of the Benua is
occupied and guarded by Malays, who, by preventing
the free access of strangers and working upon the
ignorance and fears of the Benua, keep them imprisoned
in the interior of the country. Having thus effectually
locked them up in the jungles, they prey upon them
in a most unscrupulous manner. It is probable that
if the character of the Benua had been weaker they
would have been long since reduced to direct slavery.
But although timid and unwarlike, they have stubborn
notions of right and wrong, and any attempt at compulsion
is met with an obstinate resistance. The
Malay, therefore, respects the independence and the
customs (" hadat ") of the Benua, adapts himself to his
notions, and has recourse to craft and cajolery to
attain his ends.- He treats his victims with a great
^ J. I. A. vol. i. p. 273. MS. which was forwarded by one of
2 The following passage, explanatory the Selangor chiefs, and purports to
of the customs of the Benua, is trans- be the answer given by the four chiefs,
lated from a copy of an old Malay or Neneks {i.e. "elders," lit. grand-