Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

I THE JAKUN PROBLEM 31
comparative measurements has been drawn up by the
writer.
Relationship of the Sakai to other Races.
The possibiHty of there being some ultimate re-
lationship (such as has just been referred to) between
the Veddas, Tamils, Australians, and Sakai was
foreshadowed by Virchow in 1896,^ the main points of
comparison being the height, skull -character, skin-
colour, and hair- character. Of these, to go by the
comparative table, the height is variable, but in all
four of the races compared it is certainly greater than
that of the Negrito races. The skin-colour, again, it
is true, varies to a remarkable degree, but the general
hair -character appears to be uniformly long, black,
and wavy, and the skull-index, on the other hand,
appears to indicate consistently a dolichocephalic or
long-shaped head.
C.
—
The Jakun Problem.
The third of the three great problems which con-
front us in dealing with the wild tribes of the Peninsula
is that of the relationship between the Malays and the
Benua or mixed tribes in the southern portion of the
Malay Peninsula.
By the Pan- Negrito theorists the Jakun were
regarded as tribes of Negrito origin, more or less
modified by admixture with the civilised (Mohammedan)
Malays. Both Crawfurd, however, and, more
particularly, Favre long ago pointed out the reasons
which oblige us to regard the Jakun as aboriginal
tribes, and as having been settled in the Peninsula since
' V. B. G. A. xxviii. 152 seqij., and elsewhere.