the malayan race.
physical conformation of the malays—betel chewing—their moral character—limited intelligence of the malays—their maritime tastes—piracy—gambling—cock-fighting—running a-muck!—fishing—malayan superstitions—the battas—their cannibalism—eating a man alive—the begus—aërial huts—funeral ceremonies—the dyaks—head-hunting—the sumpitan—large houses.
unlike the apathetic indian hunter, whose wishes are bounded by the forest or the savannah, where the chase provides him with a scanty subsistence, or the good-humoured negro who, fond of agriculture, and attached to the soil on which he was born, never thinks of wandering of his own free will to distant countries, the roving race of the malays has scattered its colonies far and wide over the indian archipelago.
the colour of the various tribes of this remarkable people is a yellowish-brown, and varies but little throughout the numerous islands extending from sumatra and the peninsula of malacca to the moluccas. the hair is black, coarse and straight, the beard scanty. the stature is below the average european size,254 the breast well developed, the limbs meagre. the face is broad and somewhat flat, with high cheek-bones, a small nose, a large mouth with broad lips, and black eyes with angular orbits. the children and young people of both sexes are often really handsome in face and graceful in figure, but as they advance in age their features become hard, and frequently present a repulsive appearance.
like most nations in a rude state of society, they are in the habit of permanently disfiguring parts of the body under the idea of ornament. considering blackness a becoming colour for the teeth—for dogs, they say, have them white—they file the enamel so that the bone may be tinged by the juice of the pungent betel, which, wrapped round the nut of the areca palm, and mixed with lime, they are in the habit of chewing from morning till night. this combination, besides discolouring the teeth, has the disgusting property of dyeing the saliva of so deep a red that the lips and gums appear as if coloured with blood; yet it is in universal use throughout the whole indian archipelago, and, as excuses are never failing to justify bad habits, is said to have tonic effects and to promote digestion.
the malays are not a demonstrative people; their behaviour towards strangers is marked by a reserve, a distrust, or even a timidity which inclines the observer to tax with exaggeration the wild and bloodthirsty character which is generally ascribed to their race. the feelings of astonishment, admiration, and fear are never openly expressed, and their slow and considerate speech shows how careful they are not to give offence.
to indulge in a joke is quite contrary to their natural disposition, and they deeply feel, and are ever ready to resent, a breach of etiquette or a personal affront. the higher classes are extremely polite, and have all the quiet manners and dignity of the best educated europeans. but this external polish is united with a reckless cruelty and contempt for human life which forms the dark side of their character. hence it is not to be wondered at that different authors give us such totally contradictory accounts of them.
an old traveller, nicolo conti, who wrote in 1430, says that ‘the inhabitants of java and sumatra surpass all other people in cruelty,’ while drake praises their love of truth and justice.255 mr. crawfurd describes the javanese as a peaceable and industrious people, but barbosa, who visited malacca about the year 1660, informs us that they are extremely cunning and great cheats; that they seldom speak the truth, and are ever ready for a villanous deed.
their intelligence seems to be incapable of any higher flight. they comprehend nothing which goes beyond the simplest combination of ideas, and have little taste and energy to obtain an increase of knowledge. the civilisation they possess shows no traces of original growth, but is entirely confined to those nations or states which have adopted the mahometan religion, or in still earlier times received their culture from india.
it must, however, be remarked in their favour that the curse both of domestic tyranny and of a foreign yoke weighs heavily upon them, and that the extension of european domination in the indian ocean has been as fatal to their race as it has been in america and africa to the red-skin and the negro.
‘the first voyagers from the west,’ says rajah brooke, ‘found the natives rich and powerful, with strong established governments, a flourishing literature, and a thriving trade with all parts of the eastern world. the rapacious european has reduced them to their present abject condition. their governments have been broken up; the old states decomposed by treachery, by bribery, and intrigue; their possessions wrested from them under flimsy pretences, their trade restricted, their vices encouraged, and their virtues repressed.’
‘among the malays of the present day,’ says newbold, ‘we look in vain for that desire of knowledge which excited their ancestors to transplant the flowers of arabian literature among their own forests. works of science are now no longer translated from the arabic, and creations of the imagination have almost ceased to appear. the few children educated among them learn nothing but to mumble in an unknown tongue a few passages from the koran, entirely neglecting arithmetic and the acquirement of any useful manual art or employment. painting, sculpture, architecture, mechanics, geography, are totally unknown to the malays. their literature declined with the fall of their empire in the archipelago, nor could it256 well be expected to flourish under the upas trees of portuguese intolerance, dutch oppression, and british apathy.’
essentially maritime in their tastes, the malays have been named the phœnicians of the east; but not satisfied with the peaceful pursuits of the fisherman or the merchant, many of them infest the indian ocean as merciless pirates.
encouraged by the weakness and distraction of the old-established malay governments, the facilities offered by natural situation, and the total absence of all restraint from european nations, except now and then the destruction of some mud fort or bamboo-village, which is soon rebuilt, the illanuns, the balagnini, and other sea-robbing tribes, issue forth like beasts of prey, enslave or murder the inhabitants on the coasts or at the entrance of rivers, and attack ill-armed or stranded european vessels.
the illanuns of mindanao are particularly noted for their daring and long-protracted piratical excursions, which they undertake in large junks with sails, netting, and heavy guns. on one occasion the ‘rajah brooke’ met eighteen illanun boats on neutral ground, and learned from their two chiefs that they had been two years absent from home; and from the papuan slaves on board it was evident that their cruise had extended from the most eastern islands of the archipelago to the north-western coast of borneo.
the balagnini inhabit a cluster of small islands in the vicinity of sooloo, where they probably find encouragement and a slave market. they cruise in large prahus, and to each of these a fleet boat or ‘sampan’ is attached, which on occasion can carry from ten to fifteen men. they seldom have large guns like the illanuns, but, in addition to their other arms, brass pieces, carrying from a one- to a three-pound ball. they use long poles with barbed iron points, with which, during an engagement or flight, they hook their prey. by means of their sampans they are able to capture all small boats; and it is a favourite device with them to disguise one or two men, whilst the rest lie concealed in the bottom of the boat, and thus to surprise prahus at sea, and fishermen or others at the mouths of rivers. their cruising grounds are very extensive; they frequently make the circuit of borneo; gillolo and the moluccas lie within their range, and it is probable that papua is257 occasionally visited by them. the borneans, from being so harassed by these freebooters, who yearly take a considerable number of this unwarlike people into slavery, call the easterly monsoon ‘the pirate wind.’ their own native governments are probably without exception participators in or victims to piracy, and in many cases both—purchasing from one set of pirates and enslaved and plundered by another; and whilst their dependencies are abandoned, the unprotected trade goes to ruin. thus piracy rests like a blighting curse upon lands pre-eminently blessed by nature, and proves as ruinous to the welfare of the eastern archipelago as the black stain of the african slave trade to that of the negroes.
the malays are inveterate gamblers, and, perhaps for want of some nobler object on which to expend their mental energies, carry the mania of betting at cock-fights to a ruinous excess. passionately addicted to this favourite amusement, they will lose all their property on a favourite bird, and having lost that, stake their families, and after the loss of wife and children, their own personal liberty, being prepared to serve as slaves in case of losing. whole poems are devoted to enthusiastic descriptions of cock-fighting, which is regulated by universally acknowledged laws as minute as those of the hoyleian code.
the birds are not trimmed as in england, but fight in full feather, armed with straight or curved artificial spurs, sharp as razors and about two and a half inches long. large gashes are inflicted by these murderous instruments, and it rarely happens that both cocks survive the battle. one spur only is used, and is generally fastened near the natural spur on the inside of the left leg. cocks of the same colour are seldom matched. the weight is adjusted by the setters-to, passing them to and from each other’s hands as they sit facing each other in the cock-pit. should there be any difference, it is brought down to an equality by the spur being fixed so many scales higher on the leg of the heavier cock, or as deemed fair by both parties. in adjusting these preliminaries the professional skill of the setters-to is called into action, and much time is taken up in grave deliberation, which often terminates in wrangling. the birds, after various methods of irritating them have been practised, are then set to. during the continuance of the battle the excitement and interest taken by the gambling spectators in258 the barbarous exhibition is vividly depicted in their animated looks and gestures.
the malays who are not slaves go always armed; they would think themselves disgraced if they went abroad without their crees or poniards, which, to render them more formidable, are often steeped in poison. these weapons, which thus afford them the ready means for avenging an affront, are probably the chief cause which renders their outward deportment to each other remarkably punctilious and courteous, but they sometimes become highly dangerous in the hands of a people whose nervous temperament is liable to sudden explosions of frantic rage. like the old berserks of the heroic ages of scandinavia, a malay is capable of so far working himself into fury, of so far yielding to some spontaneous impulse, or of so far exciting himself by stimulants, as to become totally regardless of what danger he exposes himself to. in this state, which is called ‘running a-muck,’ he rushes forth as an infuriated animal and attacks all who fall in his way, until he is either struck down like a wild beast, or having expended his morbid rage he falls down exhausted.
the malays are bad agriculturists and artisans but excellent sportsmen. from the small birds which they entangle in their snares to the large animals of the forest, which they shoot or entrap in pit-falls, or destroy by spring-guns, nothing worth catching escapes their attention. such is their delight in fishing, that even women and children may be seen in numbers during the rains angling in the swampy rice grounds. spearing excursions against the swordfish are undertaken during the dark of the moon by the light of torches. a good eye, a steady hand are necessary, and a perfect knowledge of the places where the fish are to be found. each canoe carries a steersman, a man with a long pole to propel the vessel, and a spearsman, who, armed with a long slender javelin having a head composed of the sharpened spikes of the nibong palm, and holding in his left hand a large blazing torch, takes his station at the stern of the canoe. they thus glide slowly and noiselessly over the still surface of the clear water, till the rays of the flambeau either attract the prey to the surface or discover it lying seemingly asleep at a little depth below. the sudden splash of the swiftly descending spear is heard, and the fish is the next moment seen glittering in the air, either transfixed259 by the spikes or caught in the interstices as the weapon is withdrawn.
as a natural consequence of their extreme ignorance, the malays, even the best educated, are inordinately superstitious, and people the invisible world with a host of malignant spirits. the pamburk roams the forest, like the wild huntsman of the haruz, with demon dogs, and the storm fiend hantu ribut howls in the blast and revels in the whirlwind. tigers are considered in many instances to be the receptacles of the souls of departed human beings, and they believe that some men have the faculty of transforming themselves at pleasure into tigers, and that others enjoy the privilege of invulnerability. they rely firmly on the efficacy of charms, spells, amulets, talismans, lucky and unlucky moments, magic, and judicial astrology. to pull down or repair a seriously damaged house is considered unlucky, so that whenever a malay has occasion to build a new house he leaves the old one standing.
while the coasts of borneo and sumatra are occupied by the more civilised mahometan malays, the interior of these vast islands is inhabited by nations, probably of the same race, who, secluded from the rest of the world, exhibit in their customs a strange and almost incredible mixture of good and evil, of humane tendencies and diabolical barbarism.
thus the battas, who next to the malays are the most numerous people of sumatra, have the same polite and ceremonious manner, they possess an ancient code of law, they write books, and are fond of music, they build commodious houses, which they ornament with tasteful carvings, they wear handsome tissues and know the art of smelting and amalgamating metals; they are extremely good-natured, and yet they not only eat human flesh, but eat it under circumstances of unexampled atrocity.
according to their own traditions, their ancestors knew nothing of this horrid practice, which was first instigated by the demon of war about the year 1630, and from being originally an act of vengeance or fury, became at length one of their institutions in times of peace, and is now legally sanctioned as a punishment for certain heavy crimes. in some cases the delinquent is first killed and then eaten, in others he is eaten alive, an aggravated punishment which, however, is only reserved for traitors, spies, and enemies seized arms in260 hand. before the day appointed for execution, messengers are sent to all friends and allies, and preparations made as for a great festival. the victim, tied to a stake, awaits his horrible fate, while the air resounds with music and the clamour of hundreds of spectators. the rajah of the village steps forward, draws his knife, addresses the assembly, relates the crimes which justify the sentence, and says that now the moment is come for punishing the doomed wretch, whom he describes as a hellish scoundrel, as a satan in a human form. at these words the actors in the shocking drama about to be performed feel, as they say, an invincible longing to swallow a piece of the villain’s flesh, as they then feel sure that he can do them no further harm, and impatiently brandish their knives.
the rajah or the injured person, such is his privilege, now cuts off the first piece of flesh, which he generally selects from the inner side of the forearm (this being esteemed the most delicate morsel), or from the cheek when sufficiently fat, holds it up triumphantly, and tastes some of the flowing blood, his eyes at the same time sparkling with delight. he then hurries to one of the fires that have been kindled close by to broil his piece of meat before swallowing it, while the whole troop falls upon the miserable wretch, who, hacked to pieces, and bleeding from a hundred wounds, in a few moments expires. the avidity with which they devour his quivering flesh, untouched by his shrieks and supplications, is the more to be wondered at as in other cases they show themselves susceptible of a tender pity for the sufferings of others. as if scenes like these were not sufficiently horrible, it has even been affirmed that the battas eat their aged parents alive, but we hardly need the authority of dr. junghuhn, who, during a residence of two years among the battas, only heard of three cases of public cannibalism, that this report has no foundation in truth. so much, however, is certain, that this singular people have a great liking for human flesh, and in all cases where a simple execution takes place seize the opportunity of quietly carrying home some favourite joint.
the battas have no priests, no temples, no idols.23 they believe in a number of evil spirits, or begus, who have their seat in the various diseases of the human body, and in a few261 good spirits, or sumongot, the immortal souls of great forefathers, who reside on the high mountain tops. the souls only of such persons as die of a violent death ascend into the invisible land of immortality, and this may be some consolation to the poor wretches whom they horribly cut up at their cannibal feasts, while all persons dying of illness are considered as having fallen into the power of the begus, and as totally annihilated. they have no idea of a supreme being, and their only religious ceremony, if such it may be called, is that on festival occasions they scatter rice to the four quarters of the wind, in order to propitiate the begus.
in consequence of the general state of anarchy in which their unfortunate country is plunged, they live in small fortified villages, surrounded by palisades and deep ditches so as to leave but two gates for a passage.
as in the feudal times, eminences strong by nature are frequently selected for the sites of these settlements, where the batta, though removed from the more fruitful plains, cultivates his small field of mountain rice in greater security. in some districts, where hostile invasions are less to be feared, he possesses, besides his village residence, a detached hut in a forest clearance near some river navigable by canoes. to be out of the reach of wild animals or inundations, these huts are frequently built on trees whose central branches have been lopped off, while the outer ones have been left standing, so as to afford a grateful shade to the little aërial dwelling.
from this eminence, which the proprietor reaches by a ladder from twenty-five to thirty feet high, he looks down complacently upon his paddy field below, and as he is no sportsman, the undisturbed denizens of the forest afford him many a pastime. monkeys gambol without fear on the trees around him; long-tailed squirrels leap from bough to bough; elephants bathe in the river; lemurs and fox-bats fly about in the evening; stags feed in the thicket beneath; and the only enemy he seeks to destroy is the leguan lizard, who, intent on plundering his hen-roost, lies concealed among the reeds on the river’s bank.
the battas, having frequently suffered by foreign invasions, suspect all strangers of evil intentions, and desire to be as little as possible disturbed by their visits. for this reason, as well262 as for additional security against hostile incursions, they have no roads nor bridges, and as the villages are generally many miles apart and separated from each other by jungles or woods, this total want of the means of communication presents an almost insuperable obstacle to the traveller. their distrust of strangers extends even to the members of their own nation, so that battas of one province cannot enter another without running the risk of being seized as spies and eaten alive.
while two of the great events of human life—birth and marriage—pass almost unnoticed among the battas, the third and last act of this ‘strange eventful history’ gives rise to ceremonies which one would hardly expect to meet with among a nation of cannibals. when the rajah of a large village dies, his body is kept so long in the house, until the rice which is sown on the day of his death by his son or his brother comes to maturity. when the rice is about to ripen, a buffalo is killed, and its bones sent round to all friends and relations among the rajahs of the neighbourhood as an invitation to the burial, which is to take place on the tenth day after the reception of these strange missives. every rajah who accepts the invitation is obliged to bring with him a buffalo. the coffin is placed on a bier before the house, and on the arrival of the guests their buffaloes are tied to strong poles close by. the wives, sons, and other near relations of the deceased, now walk seven times with loud lamentations round the buffaloes, after which the oldest or first wife breaks a pot of boiled rice grown from the seed sown on the dying day on the forehead of one of the buffaloes. this is the signal for a frantic explosion of grief among the mourning women, whose piercing cries are accompanied by the incessant beating of drums and brass kettles in the house. after this lugubrious scene, which soon terminates with the real or feigned exhaustion of the actors, each of the rajahs now in his turn walks seven times round the buffalo which he brought with him, and kills it with a stroke of his lance. the coffin is then removed to the burial-place, and placed on the side of the open grave, amid the profound silence of the assembly. its lid is opened, and the eldest son of the deceased, stepping forward, looks at the corpse, the face of which is turned towards the sun, and, raising his hand to the sky, says, ‘now, father, thou seest for the last time the sun, which thou wilt never see again.’ after this short263 but affecting allocution the lid is closed and the coffin lowered into the grave, upon which the company returns to the village, where meantime the slaughtered buffaloes have been made ready for the funeral feast. their horns, skulls, and jaw-bones, fastened to stakes, are placed as ornaments round the grave, which has no other monument or inscription. on each of the two following days some food is carried to it, a welcome treat for the dogs, and then it is consigned to the neglect which is the ultimate fate of all.
the mystical sowing of rice, and the touching words spoken at the grave, prove that the battas, though without any fixed religious worship, have still religious feelings, and may serve to confirm the truth of the remark, that there is no nation, however barbarous, which does not show at least some traces of a belief in the divinity, and reveal, however obscurely, that man has been born for something higher than a mere animal existence.
among the dyaks, a name indiscriminately applied to all the wild people on the island of borneo, we find no less revolting customs than among the battas of sumatra. they are hunters of their kind, not merely for the sake of an unnatural feast, but simply for the sake of collecting heads. skulls are the commonest ornaments of a dyak house, and the possession of them is the best token of manly courage. a dyak youth is despised by all the maidens of his village as long as he has not cut off the head of an enemy or waylaid a stranger; returning from a successful chase with one of these ghastly trophies, he is welcomed as a hero. the head is stuck upon a pole, and old and young dance around it, singing and beating gongs. murder of the most revolting atrocity, which anywhere else would make its perpetrator be considered the enemy of his kind, is thus by a horrible perversity one of the elements of courtship. the same atrocious custom is found among the harafuras of celebes, the nias islanders, and some other malay nations of the indian archipelago. when the harafuras go to war, they first steal some heads, boil them, and drink the broth to render themselves invulnerable.
the minkokas of celebes limit the custom of taking heads to funeral or festive occasions, more especially on the death of their rajah or chief. when this occurs they sally forth, with a264 white band across their forehead to notify their object, and destroy alike their enemies and strangers. from twenty to forty heads, according to the rank of the deceased rajah, being procured, buffaloes are killed, rice boiled, and a solemn funeral feast is held, and, whatever time may elapse, the body is not previously buried. the heads, on being cleaned, are hung up in the houses of the three principal persons of the tribe, and regarded with great veneration and respect.
the national weapon of the dyaks, though not in use among all their tribes, is the sumpitan, a blow-pipe about five feet long, with an arrow made of wood, thin, light, sharp-pointed, and dipped in the poison of the upas tree. as this is fugacious, the points are generally dipped afresh when wanted. for about twenty yards the aim is so true that no two arrows shot at the same mark will be above an inch or two apart. on a calm day the utmost range may be a hundred yards. though impregnated with a poison less deadly than the wourali of the american indians, yet the shafts of the sumpitan are formidable weapons from the frequency with which they can be discharged, and the skill of those who use them. the arrows are contained in a bamboo case, hung at the side, and at the bottom of this quiver is the poison of the upas. when they face an enemy the box at the side is open, and, whether advancing or retreating, they fire the poisoned missiles with great precision.
the style of building of the dyaks is very peculiar; most of their villages consisting of a single house, in which from fifteen to twenty families live together, in separate compartments.
the floor of these long buildings, which are thatched with palm leaves, rests on piles about six or ten feet from the ground, and the simple furniture consists of some mats, baskets, and a few knives, pots, a very primitive loom, and some dried heads by way of ornament.
though habitual assassins from ignorance and superstitious motives, the dyaks are said to be of a mild, good-natured, and by no means bloodthirsty character. they are hospitable when well used, grateful for kindness, industrious and honest, and so truthful that the word of one of them might safely be taken before the oath of half-a-dozen civilised malays.
the celebrated traveller, mrs. ida pfeiffer, who had the265 courage to wander among the dyaks, and the good fortune to return with her head on her shoulders, speaks highly of their patriarchal life, the love they have for their children, and the respectful conduct of the children towards their parents.
as to their personal appearance, she affirms that, though some authors describe them as fine men, they are only a little less ugly than the malays.
