I will now add some particulars of the population of each of the large islands of Malaysia.[560]
The interior of the island of Sumatra is inhabited by independent populations, known in the north under the name of Battas (with whom should probably be associated the Ala and the Gaja of the interior of Achin), and under the name of Kubu and Lubu in the south. All these tribes, who are primitive tillers of the soil, are famous as man-eaters and head hunters. As to the regions contiguous to the east and west coasts, they are inhabited (as well as in part the middle of the island, between the Kubu and the Batta) by the so-called Menangkabau Malays (the name of the ancient native kingdom). The north coast is taken up by the Achinese, a mixed Arabo-Indonesian people; while the south part of the great island is occupied by other compound populations, the Palenbangs or Javanese of Sumatra, the Rejangs (Malayo-Javanese), the Passumahs (Indonesians intermixed with Javanese blood), and finally the Lampongs, cross-breeds of Passumahs with Sundanese (see below) and the natives of the south, such as the Orang-Abong, who have to-day almost disappeared. The islands skirting west Sumatra are peopled with tribes resembling the Battas, like the islanders of Nias, of Engano (p. [486], [note]), etc. The islands to the east are peopled by Malays, except Riu and the middle of Biliton, which are occupied by the Baju, a tribe perhaps of Negrito race. The island of Bangka is occupied mostly by a branch of the Passumahs.
In Java are to be noted the Sundanese in the west, the Javanese in the east, the former being less affected by Hindu elements. The Madurese of Madura and Bavean islands, as well as the Balinese of Bali, are like the Javanese. In the less accessible mountains of the province of Bantam (west of the island) live the Baduj, and in those of the east (province of Pasuruan) the Tenggerese. These are two fairly pure Indonesian tribes, who have preserved their heathen customs in the midst of the Mussulman population of Java. There are people like them in Bali, Lombok, and Sumbawa.[561]
In Borneo, the coast is occupied by Malays, except the north-east part, where are found Suluans (Arabised Indonesians from the Sulu Islands), Bugis, and the Bajaus or Sea Gypsies, analogous to those of Riu and Mergui (p. [396]).
The interior of the large island is, however, the exclusive domain of the Dyaks, the numerous tribes of which may be divided into two great groups, the one of stationary, the other of nomadic habits. The sedentary tribes, more or less intermixed with immigrant elements, Chinese, Malay, and Bugi, are more or less civilised. First come the Kayans, the Bahau, and the Segai; then the Tagans, among whom, it is said, the practice obtains of girls being deflowered by their fathers; and, lastly, the Dusuns or Sun Dyaks, the Baludupis, the Land Dyaks, and the Sea Dyaks of Sarawak, etc. Second, the nomads, who are purer than the fixed tribes, and sometimes half savage, as, for example, the Punan and Olo-ot of the middle of the island, are still little known.[562]
The Philippine archipelago[563] contains, besides Negritoes (p. [483]), a crowd of Indonesian tribes, which, from the linguistic and ethnic point of view, may be grouped as follows:—Starting in the north-east we meet first the Cagayanes or Ibangs around Lake Cagayan in the island of Luzon, and their neighbours the Ifugaos, who are hunters of skulls; then farther south we find the Igorrotes and their congeners; then the Tagals; then, still farther south, in the interior, on all the east coast of Luzon, as well as on the coast of Mindoro, are found the savage Mangianes. At many points these peoples are intermixed with Chinese blood. The west coast of Luzon is occupied by the Ilocanos, who are bold colonists, and, farther south, towards Manilla, tribes of the Zambales and Pangasinanes. The quite southern extremity of Luzon is occupied by the Bicols, nearly related to the Tagals, whom one finds again also scattered over the islands (Catanduanes Islands, north Masbate Island, etc.). West Mindanao is taken up by the mixed population (Arabo-Negrito-Indonesian) of pirates, Mussulman fanatics, known by the name of Moros; the east of this island being inhabited by several tribes as yet little known, such as Mandayas in the south, Bogobos in the north, etc., and the Caragas tribe of Bisaya or Vissaya. Most of these last people occupy the rest of the archipelago north of Mindanao, as far as and including the south of Masbate and Samar and Tablas islands. They are met again beside the Moros in Palawan Island between the Philippines and Borneo. The Tagaloc language is largely superseding other dialects in the archipelago; it has already displaced Bicol in the north of the province of Camarine, Bisayan on Marinduque Island, etc. Besides, Tagals emigrate to the other parts of the archipelago and even to Marianne Islands. Most of the Tagals are Christians; many can read and write Spanish, and not a few have received a superior education.
Celebes Island is peopled in the north (Minahassa province) by the Alfurus; in the south by Mangkassars and Bugis, and by various tribes (Toraja, Gorontolo, etc.), who as yet have been little studied, in the middle. The Moluccas are inhabited by other “Alfurus,” with a greater strain of Papuan blood. Timur, apart from its Malay or Indonesian coast populations, contains also tribes imbued with Papuan blood; such are the Emabelo of the middle of the island; the Timur-Atuli of the east coast; the Helong-Atuli in Samu Island opposite Kupang, the capital of Timur; and lastly, the Rottinese of Rotti Island, south-west of Timur, etc.
FIG. 151.—Young Papuan woman of the Samarai people
(Dinner Island, Moresby group, south of the south-east extremity of New Guinea).
Mixed type (Papuan-Melano-Polynesian).
(Phot. Haddon.)