(Male and Female)
To face page 44.
“My chief reasons for my decision on this point, are deduced from the existence of these retrograde instances from the present to the aboriginal type: the fact that the orang-utans are not easily distinguishable from the Malays inhabiting the interior of Jahore, does not diminish this decision, because these Malays gradually by intermarriages have partly inherited the orang-utan type. This intermarriage has been in practice for centuries, and is likely to have been occasioned by the flight into the interior of those of the Coast-Malays, who preferred retirement in the jungle to embracing the doctrines of Islam at the time of the Mahomedan conquest in these parts. To such causes are mainly attributable the variations in the type, and the diversity in the skull formations which I met with in my journey. In size the “orang-utan” are strikingly diminutive. The men rarely exceed four feet eight inches in height, whilst I came across many instances of women, mothers of several children, whose stature was about four feet two inches. Some allowance in these cases must be made consequent on the early marriages, and the defective nourishment at all times.
“Some of the ‘orang-utan’ whilst preserving their traditional habits and mode of existence, continue to dwell in the neighbourhood of the Malay population, selling to them the best-looking and strongest of their daughters. It is rare for the ‘orang-utan’ to change to Islamism or to adopt the Malay habits of life. In these cases their aboriginal language has yielded to the Malay and become entirely forgotten as if it had never existed. Such are the conclusions arrived at after wandering in Jahore, which I traversed from the Straits of Malacca to the China Sea. In the study of these people I felt as if I were commencing the perusal of an interesting old work, of whose semi-effaced pages some were missing.”[2]
[1] “Journal of Eastern Asia.” July, 1875. Trübner & Co. [↑]
[2] It is curious to find that in Borneo, and elsewhere in the Malayan islands, the name “orang-utan” (literally “wild man,” or, “man of the woods,”) is applied not only to the large red monkey, as with us, but also to the aboriginal inhabitants of the interior. The Muruts are frequently spoken of as “orang-utan,” not only by the Malays, but also by the Kadyans, a tribe of aboriginals converted to the Mahomedan faith. [↑]