# Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society/Volume 50/Some Ethnological Notes
## Some Ethnological Notes.Some Ethnological Notes.

C. BODEN KLOSS, F.R.A.I.
In the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Vol. XXXVII., Mr. F. W. Knocker in the course of some notes on the aborigines of Sungei Ujong—the Orang Belanas—relates that they tell in respect of the Sakais, how "the parents plant a parang in the fore-arm of the young, both male and female, projecting a few inches beyond the elbow. The flesh grows round it and it eventually become part of the fore-limb. In after life this limb weapon is used to clear the jungle and not for hostile purposes."
I am able to go one better than this. When living in Johore, it was my practice when travelling in the jungle to endeavour to ascertain whether there were current any tradi- tions of the existence of the orang utan (Simia satyrus) in that part of the peninsula. The native name for this great ape is "mawas." In the swampy country south of Gunong Pulai I found that the name was known and the people of the locality told me tales of its possessor. The information was interesting but not quite what I then wanted. The Orang Mawas were a kind of devil-men who lived in the swamps where their foot-prints might sometimes be seen. Their feet were turned backwards and, with sharp parangs which grow from their elbows like spurs, they killed any human beings they met and afterwards devoured the bodies.
Nothing discouraged I continued my enquiries elsewhere and learned that the Jakuns of the Endau Sembrong were also acquainted with a strange beast that seemed to be of the kind I was after. This was a huge red hairy man who lived in the trees and was called tuhu. I felt I was on the right track at last, but unfortunately the story went on to the effect that the tuhu spoke Chinese to a Chinaman when it met him in the jungle, Malay to a Malay, and the Jakun dialect to a Jakun!
​The head-men of the Belanas are given as 1, Batin; 2, Jinang; 3, Jukrah—the usual titles among the southern in- land tribes. 1 find that a variant of the latter also occurs among the Proto-Malays of the Kallang estuary in Singapore, a fact which Messrs. Skeat and Ridley failed to elect during their short visit thither (J. S. B. R. A. S. No. 33).
These enquirers state that the head-men of the Kampong they visited were 1, Jinang; 2, Batin. I further find in the neighbourhood one Kampong administered by 1, Batin; 3, Dukrah and another under 1, Penghulu; 2, Jinang. At Telok Senimba, Pulo Batam, a dozen miles away, the people who are a branch of the "Orang Sabimba" referred to by Logan (Journal of the India Archipelago Vol. I.) have 1, Penghulu; 2, Batin.
The communities of the Kallang River have evidently been drawn from various sources and some guidance may be afforded by these titles as to their derivation.
Amongst these primitive tribes the title of Batin extends throughout their range from the farthest north of Biliton, and in the islands appears to be the only one except where they have come under the influence of the ruling Malays, in which cases a Malay has often been appointed as Penghulu.
In the Peninsula however there are amongst themselves officials subordinate to the Batin known as Jinang and Jukrah. Where (according to Logan and others) a Malay has been appointed to supervise them he also is called, possibly because of his functions, Jinang, and it is needless to say that in these cases the title would occasionally become the superior one. This might account for the reversed "Table of Precedency" noted by Messrs. Ridley and Skeat, as Kampong Roko is a small village hedged in by dominant Malays. The anomaly of Penghulu and Jinang noticed by myself in another Kam- pong I can only account for by supposing that long ago the title of Batin dropped out of use.
The word bidoh, boat (also the name of a stream in Singapore) given as a Non-Malay expression, is in common use amongst the Malays of the west coast of Borneo.
​Messrs. Skeat and Ridley suggest that "the Sea-gypsies of Singapore owe their origin largely from "Sakai hill- tribes of the Rio-Lingga Archipelago " and class the Belandas as "Sakai" also: surely this is a slip and should be Jakun or Proto-Malayan or some other equivalent of these!
It is regrettable that all those English writers who have dealt so interestingly with the primitive people should be re- stricted in experience to the Peninsula for the Jakuns are only the mainland representatives—and probably least pure—of that large family that is spread throughout a great part of Eastern Sumatra and the islands adjacent. Such, for in- stance, are the Orang Akit of Bengkalis and Rupat Islands, the Palong of the upper tributaries of the Siak River, the Mantong and many others of the Rio-Lingga Archipelago, the Orang Gunong of Banka and the Sika of Biliton. The Kubus and Lubus of the interior of Sumatra also appear to be members of the same family.
To Journal 41 of the Society Dr. W. L. Abboit con- tributes a note on "Human Images among the Orang Man- long."
According to an old inhabitant of a Kampong at Tanjong Ru, an Oorang Laut by descent—though he would never admit himself to be other than a pure Orang Malayu—these images are called "Tukar Ganti" and, in common with the "Kapal Hantu " and "Rumah Sakit," are constructed, to his knowledge, by all the inhabitants of the Rhio Archipelago and of the creeks round Singapore in times of sickness. When the Tukar Ganti is completed the "penyakit" (sick- ness) is induced to enter it and it is then taken away to the jungle or some distant spot and there left. Further, all these objects—and this was unknown to me and perhaps is so to others—are used for prophylaxis as well as cure. A current instance was related.
"Ten days ago the village pawang came to the people, 'I see the evil spirits,' said he, 'the hantus are gathering thickly to afflict the Kampong. Now if we want to escape their machinations every house must contribute 40 cents so that a large vessel may be built into which the hantus will ​enter and can then be sent away to sea.' On the day it is sent off the pawang's house will be under a pantang (tabu) to Europeans and all strangers."
My acquaintance also said that once these objects pass from the charge of their makers their superstitious attributes end and no one who takes possession of them is affected in any way. He observed that Europeans called his people idiots for practising such ceremonies. "But," I asked, "what does the Imam say?" "Oh he laughs at us or is angry and says that we are idiots too, for such hantus don't exist and such practices are not compatible with Islamism. But our pawang tells us otherwise and as it is a thing we have always done we shall continue to do so."
Mention has been made of the Orang Senimba (Sa- bimba). They are the people of whom Logan (Jour. Ind. Arch. Vol. I. p. 295) records that a portion were trans- ferred from Batam Island to Johore and settled on the Tebrau River. In Johore all trace of them as a distinct tribe has now disappeared and the names seems forgotten also. Such also I found to be the case with the Biduanda Kallang settled once on the Pulai River. Nevertheless, all the creeks of the Old Straits and of the Johore River estuary are occupied by people who, although now Islamised, are still primitive in habits and appearance and quite distinct from the dominant Orang Malayu by whom they have been absorbed.
These are the people once known as Orang Seletar (J. I. A. Vol. I.) and they, with all the above, belong to the Sea- Jakun, or Orang Laut, branch of the Proto-Malays. Except for a small party on the Sungei Masai, merely brought down. by a Chinaman to cut fire-wood, I could ascertain no traces of the inland division south of a line drawn between the Batu Pahat and Sedili Rivers. In this latitude they are to be found on the Lenggiu and Sayong streams, the head waters of the Johore. In this connection the cropping up of the parong legend given above is interesting as it shows that the state of affairs was other in the past.
The remaining Orang Senimba live on the shores of Senimba Bay, behind Pulo Sambu—though Logan speaks of ​them as essentially a forest people—and do a little fishing, cultivating and fire-wood cutting. They are now Moham- medans which is to say that they have lost all ethnographical individuality.
But in the interior of Batam still exist an almost un- spoilt people who, although the island is so small and they are nomadic, never come down to the sea. These are evident- ly Logan's "Orang Muka Kuning" (for his other tribe the Treng-Bubong" appear to have shared the fate of the Sa- bimba) although the name seems unknown to the shore people. I have not seen them personally, for living in tem- porary shelters and wandering about, they are not easily met with during a short visit but it was stated that they are less than a hundred in number. They trade a little jungle pro- duce occasionally and wear bark chawals when they possess no cotton garments.
The most interesting fact in connection with them is that they still use the sumpitan and ipoh poison. They do not themselves manufacture the weapon but use one of a Borneo pattern obtained by trading. My informants assured me that though the poisoned darts were effective against wild animals yet they would never kill a fowl.
A similar tribe occupies the interior of Pulo Galang where a Belgian Planting Company has recently had some. communication with them.
As these are probably the only island tribes who have maintained practically uncorrupted their paganism and their isolation, speedy investigation is most desirable.