Temperament. Normally quiet, reserved and taciturn, but under excitement subject to fits of blind fury; fairly intelligent, polite and ceremonious, but uncertain, untrustworthy, and even treacherous; daring, adventurous and reckless; musical; not distinctly cruel, though indifferent to physical suffering in others.
Speech, various branches of a single stock language—the Austronesian (Oceanic or Malayo-Polynesian), at different stages of agglutination.
Religion, of the primitive Malayans somewhat undeveloped—a vague dread of ghosts and other spirits, but rites and ceremonies mainly absent although human sacrifices to the departed occurred in Borneo; the cultured Malayans formerly Hindus (Brahman and Buddhist), now mostly Moslem, but in the Philippines and Madagascar Christian; belief in witchcraft, charms, and spells everywhere prevalent.
Culture, of the primitive Malayans very low—head-hunting, mutilation, common in Borneo; hunting, fishing; no agriculture; simple arts and industries; the Moslem and Christian Malayans semi-civilised; the industrial arts—weaving, dyeing, pottery, metal-work, also trade, navigation, house and boat-building—well developed; architecture formerly flourishing in Java under Hindu influences; letters widespread even amongst some of the rude Malayans, but literature and science rudimentary; rich oral folklore.
Main Divisions.
Malayans (Proto-Malays): Lampongs, Rejangs, Battas, Achinese, and Palembangs in Sumatra; Sundanese, Javanese proper, and Madurese in Java; Dayaks in Borneo; Balinese; Sassaks (Lombok); Bugis and Mangkassaras in Celebes; Tagalogs, Visayas, Bicols, Ilocanos and Pangasinanes in Philippines; Aborigines of Formosa; Nicobar Islanders; Hovas, Betsimisarakas, and Sakalavas in Madagascar.
Malays Proper (Historical Malays): Menangkabau (Sumatra); Malay Peninsula; Pinang, Singapore, Lingga, Bangka; Borneo Coastlands; Tidor, Ternate; Amboina; Parts of the Sulu Archipelago.
Range of the Oceanic Mongols.
In the Oceanic domain, which for ethnical purposes begins at the neck of the Malay Peninsula, the Mongol peoples range from Madagascar eastwards to Formosa and Micronesia, but are found in compact masses chiefly on the mainland, in the Sunda Islands (Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok, Borneo, Celebes) and in the Philippines. Even here they have mingled in many places with other populations, forming fresh ethnical groups, in which the Mongol element is not always conspicuous. Such fusions have taken place with the Negrito aborigines in the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines; with Papuans in Micronesia, Flores, and other islands east of Lombok; with dolichocephalic Indonesians in Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, Halmahera (Jilolo), parts of the Philippines[492], and perhaps also Timor and Ceram; and with African negroes (Bantu) in Madagascar. To unravel some of these racial entanglements is one of the most difficult tasks in anthropology, and in the absence of detailed information cannot yet be everywhere attempted with any prospect of success.