Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

40 RACIAL AFFINITIES part
affected when the two live in close proximity (as
indeed has been observed in Kedah by Logan, and
elsewhere). On the other hand, unions between
Malay women and heathen tribesmen, although they
are certainly known to occur,^ are nevertheless of the
rarest description ; and whereas in former days a
woman who so disgraced her family as to mate with
one who was regarded as little better than the brutes
that perish, would have paid the penalty with her life,
she still has to undergo an extreme form of social
ostracism, which must inevitably act as a strong
deterrent. Hence the most appreciable admixture of
blood is only as between one wild tribe and another.
This, which I believe to be the normal state of
things, has one very important exception, for in various
parts of what is known as the Negri Sembilan, but
especially in Johol, a number of small groups of
Sumatran Malays (principally of Menangkabau origin)
have amalgamated with the local groups of aboriginal
tribes on what were (nominally at least) honourable
and equal terms, under which the Batins or chiefs of the
Jakun even retained, for a time at least, their full share
of authority in the mixed government thus established.^
The late Martin Lister, in writing of the Rembau
' Mr. C. O. Blagden informed me had previously been the mistress of
of a case at Malacca which was re- more than one white man, she died
ported to him by the woman's family. suddenly soon after. And such cases
Mr. Hale supports the view expressed have not been uncommon. The fact
in the text by writing, that in his that there is the same objection to an
many years' experience he has never alliance between a Malay woman and
met with a case of the kind {i.e. of a a Chinese or a Tamil, clearly shows
Malay woman marrying a Sakai man). that this prejudice is based on religious
He explains this by saying that the scruples.
Mohammedan naturally does not like
his women, who are virtually his slaves,
'^ Thus Mr. Hale writes me that the
" Waris " tribe in Rembau was divided
to get out of his control, and that into two sections, called " Beduanda
when the daughter of a well-known Jawa" and "Beduanda Jakun" respec-
S. Ujong chief went to live with a tively ; and that the paramount chief of
Chinaman at Malacca, although she Rembau (called " Penghulu " or " Un-