Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

28 RACIAL AFFINITIES part
Relationship of the Set^tang to other Races.
In the Appendix will be found a table which is,
perhaps, the most compendious way of enabling some
comparison to be made between the various branches
of the undoubtedly pure and allied Negrito races now
known to us, though the number of measurements in
most cases is far too small to be at all conclusive, and
the intention is not to prove the connection, but merely
to show the nature of the unsolved problem.
The net result is to show that the African pygmies
(Bambute, etc.) observed by Sir H. Johnston may
be rather shorter than either the Andamanese or the
Negritos of the Philippines and of the Malay Penin-
sula, whereas these last three races are practically of
the same height. All four are brachycephalic,^ and
have actually woolly hair, and their skin-colour varies
from a dark copper or chocolate to a glossy black.
A curious point about this group is that it still
remains a moot question—as our most recent authori-
ties declare—whether any Negritos occur in Borneo,
which would naturally be the connecting link between
the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines.
B.
—
The Sakai Problem.
According to the older writers, all traces of non-
Negrito blood among the wild tribes of the Peninsula
were due to admixture between these tribes and
civilised Malays. The types of those two races
(Semang and Sakai) are, however, fortunately so
^ The Semang are said to vary brachy- or mesaticephalic, their headfrom
brachy- to dolichocephalism, length increasing in Perak and
but the writer believes it will elsewhere through admixture with
ultimately be found that the purer their dolichocephalic Sakai neigh-
Semang {e.g. in Kedah) are mainly hours.