Long considered as an independent division of mankind, the Malays are now more generally affiliated to the Mongol stock, of which A. R. Wallace, De Quatrefages, and other eminent naturalists regard them as a simple variety more or less modified by mixture with other elements. “The Malayan race, as a whole, undoubtedly very closely resembles the East-Asian populations from Siam to Manchuria. I was much struck with this when in the island of Bali I saw Chinese traders who had adopted the costume of that country, and who could then hardly be distinguished from Malays; and, on the other hand, I have seen natives of Java who, as far as physiognomy was concerned, would pass very well for Chinese.” In fact, the typical Malay can scarcely be distinguished anthropologically from the typical Mongolian. He is described as of low stature, averaging little over 5 feet, of olive-yellow complexion inclining to light brown or cinnamon, brachycephalous, with somewhat flat features, high cheek bones, black and slightly oblique eyes, small but not flat nose, dilated nostrils, mouth wide but not projecting, hands and feet small and delicate, legs very thin and weak, coarse black hair, always lank and round in section, scant or no beard.

The departure from this description so frequently noticed in the archipelago must be attributed to intermixture with the black Papuan stock in the east, and with a distinct pre-Malay Caucasie element in the west. The presence of this “Indonesian” element, as it is called by Dr Hamy, may now be regarded as an ascertained fact, the recognition of which will help to remove many of the difficulties hitherto associated with the natural history of the Malay race. It at once explains, for instance, the apparent discrepancy between the foregoing description of the ordinary Malay and that of the Battas, Orang Kabu, and many other Sumatran and Bornean peoples described as tall and robust, with regular features, symmetrical figure, light complexion, brown and wavy hair, and general European appearance.

These considerations also enable us to fix the true centre of dispersion of the Malay race rather in Malacca than in Sumatra, contrary to the generally received opinion. If they are to be physically allied to the Mongol stock, it is obvious that the earliest migration must have been from High Asia southwards to the peninsula, and thence to Sumatra, possibly at a time when the island still formed part of the mainland. The national traditions of a dispersion from Menangkabo or Palembang in South Sumatra must accordingly be understood to refer to later movements, and more especially to the diffusion of the civilized Malay peoples, who first acquired a really national development in Sumatra in comparatively recent times. From this point they spread to the peninsula, to Borneo, Sulu, and other parts of Malaysia, apparently since their conversion to Islam, although there is reason to believe that other waves of migration must have reached Further India and especially Camboja, if not from the same region at all events from Java, at much earlier dates. The impulse to these earlier movements must be attributed to the intro duction of Indian culture through the Hindu and Buddhist missionaries, perhaps two or three centuries before the Christian era. During still more remote prehistoric times various sections of the Malay and Indonesian stocks were diffused westwards to Madagascar, where the Hovas, of undoubted Malay descent, still hold the political supremacy, and eastwards to the Philippines, Formosa, Micronesia, and Polynesia. This astonishing expansion of the Malaysian peoples throughout the Oceanic area is sufficiently attested by the diffusion of a common Malayo-Polynesian speech from Madagascar to Easter Island, and from Hawaii to New Zealand. See Polynesia.

The Malays proper have long been divided socially into three distinct groups, —the Orang Benüa, or “Men of the Soil,” that is, the uncivilized wild tribes; the Orang-laut, or “Men of the Sea,” that is, the semi-civilized floating population; and the Orang Maldyu, or “Malay Men,” that is, the civilized Malays with a culture, a literature, and a religion. The Orang Benιia, called also Orang Gunung, or “Highlanders,” and sometimes even Orang-utan, or “Wild Men,” constitute the aboriginal Malay element, the “raw material,” so to say, of the race, which has hitherto remained wholly unaffected by foreign influences, and which is still grouped in small tribes at a very low stage of culture, living nearly exclusively by the chase, and almost destitute of all social organization. They are found chiefly in the more inaccessible wooded uplands of Malacca and Sumatra, in the former region more or less intimately associated for ages with the Negrito tribes, and in the latter island apparently the sole occupiers of the land from the first. Intermediate between the Orang Benda and Orang Malayu are the Orang-laut, the “Sea Gipsies” of English writers, who still occupy the same low social position that they held when the Portuguese first reached Malaysia. They were then described by De Barros under the name of Cellates, or “people of the Straits,” as “a vile people dwelling more on the sea than on the land,” and “living by fishing and robbing”; and this description is still largely applicable, although piracy is now all but suppressed in the Eastern waters. The Bajau and Millanau of the Sulu Archipelago and neighbouring coast lands also belong to this class of sea nomads. Lastly, the Orang Malayu are that section of the race which, under the influence first of the Hindus and then of the Arabs, has developed a national life and culture, and which has founded more or less powerful political states in various parts of the archipelago. But here again it i⅜ necessary to distinguish between the civilized Malays proper, and the other civilized branches of the race, to whom the term Malay is never applied, and who speak languages which, while belonging to the common Malay linguistic family, differ greatly from the standard Malay speech. The chief divisions of all these civilized communities are as under :—

Orang Malayu: Menangkabo, Palembang, and Lampong in Sumatra; petty states of the Malay Peninsula; Borneo; Tidor; Ternate.

Sumatran group: Achinese, Rejangs, Passumahs.

Javanese group: Javanese proper, Sundanese, Madurese, Balinese.

Celebes group: Bugis, Mangkassara, and others.

Philippine group: Tagalas, Bisayans, Bicol, Sulu, and others. Outlying groups: Hovas of Madagascar, Formosan Islanders.

In all these the distinctly Malay physical type decidedly predominates, whereas elsewhere in the archipelago the so-called Malays are often rather “Indonesians,” in whom the distinctly Caucasie physical type predominates. Such especially are the Battas and Orang Kubu of Sumatra, the Nias and Mentawey islanders, the Rayans, and many of the Dyak tribes of Borneo.

In their temperament no less than in their features the Malays still betray their Asiatic origin. They are described as of a taciturn, undemonstrative disposition, little given to outward manifestations of joy or sorrow, yet extremely courteous towards each other, and as a rule kind to their women, children, and domestic animals. Slow and deliberate in speech, neither elated by good nor depressed by bad fortune, normally impassive and indolent, they are nevertheless capable of the greatest excesses when their passions are roused. I. 1 nder the influence of religious excitement, losses at gambling, jealousy or other domestic troubles, they are often seized by the so-called “amok” fever, when they will rush wildly through the crowded streets armed with their sharp krisses, cutting down all who cross their path with incredible fury and without the least discrimination. Amongst the practices and propensities _ which connect them with the Mongoloid inhabitants of Indo-China the most striking are pile-building, especially in Java and Borneo; cock-fighting, universal throughout the archipelago; a pronounced taste for putrescent fish, with a corresponding dislike of milk; headhunting (Borneo and Celebes); large ear-ornaments, greatly distending the lobe; husband entering the wife’s family, and father exchanging his own for his child’s name; counting by numeral auxiliaries, such as pebble, chief, log, mountain, feather, &c., according to the nature of the object.

The race is on the whole of a sluggish intellect, inferior in natural intelligence even to tjιe surrounding Papuan populations. Dr Montano tells us that in the girls’ school at Malacca, conducted by the Roman Catholic sisters, the Chinese children take the first, the Mantras (aborigines) the second, and the Malays the last place in order of capacity. Unaided by foreign influences they never attained a higher culture than that of the “Sea Gipsies”; and for their letters, most of their arts, and their religions they are indebted either to the Hindus or the Arabs. (A. H. K.)

Malay Language and Literature.

The Malay language is a member of the Malayan section of the Malayo-Polynesian class of languages, but it is by no means a representative type of the section which has taken its name from it. The area over which it is spoken comprises the peninsula of Malacca with the adjacent islands (the Rhio-Lingga Archipelago), the greater part of the coast districts of Sumatra and Borneo, the seaports of Java, the Sunda and Banda Islands. It is the general medium of communication throughout the archipelago from Sumatra to the Philippine Islands, and it was so upwards of three hundred and fifty years ago when the Portuguese first appeared in those parts.

There are no Malay manuscripts extant, no monumental records with inscriptions in Malay, dating from before the spreading of Islam in the archipelago, about the end of the 13th century. By some it has been argued from this fact that the Malays possessed no kind of writing prior to the introduction of the Arabic alphabet (W. Robinson, J. J. de Hollander); whereas others have maintained, with greater show of probability, that the Malays were in possession of an ancient alphabet, and that it was the same as the Rechang (Marsden, Friederich), as the Kawi (Van der Tuuk), or most like the Lampong (Kern),—all of which alphabets, with the Battak, Bugi, and Macassar, are ultimately traceable to the ancient Cambojan characters. With the Mohammedan conquest the Perso-Arabic alphabet was introduced among the Malays; it has continued over since to be in use for literary, religious, and business purposes. Where Javanese is the principal language, Malay is sometimes found written with Javanese characters; and in Palembang, in the Mënangkabo country of Middle Sumatra, the Rechang or Renchong characters are in general use, so called from the sharp and pointed knife with which they are cut on the smooth side of bamboo staves. It is only since the Dutch have established their supremacy in the archipelago that the Roman character has come to be largely used in writing and printing Malay. This is also the case in the Straits Settlements.

By the simplicity of its phonetic elements, the regularity of its grammatical structure, and the copiousness of its nautical vocabulary, the Malay language is singularly well-fitted to be the lingua franca throughout the Indian archipelago. It possesses the five vowels a, i, u, e, o, both short and long, and one pure diphthong au. Its consonants are k, g, ng, ch, j, n, t, d, n, p, b, m, y, r, I, to, s, h. Long vowels can only occur in open syllables. The only possible consonantal nexus in purely Malay words is that of a nasal and mute, a liquid and mute and vice versa, and aliquid and nasal. Final k and h are all but suppressed in the utterance. Purely Arabic letters are only used in Arabic words, a great number of which have been received into the Malay vocabulary. But the Arabic character is even less suited to Malay than to the other Eastern languages on which it has been foisted. As the short vowels are not marked, one would, in seeing, e.g., the word bntng, think first of bintang, a star; but the word might also mean a large scar, to throw down, to spread, rigid, mutilated, enceinte, a kind of cucumber, a redoubt, according as it is pronounced bantang, banting, bentang, buntang, buntung, bunting, bonteng, benteng.

Malay is essentially, with few exceptions, a dissyllabic language, and the syllabic accent rests on the penultimate unless that syllable is open and short; e.g., dâtang, namâna, bësâr, diumpatkannalah. Nothing in the form of a root word indicates the grammatical category to which it belongs; thus, käsih, kindness, affectionate, to ]ove; ganti, a proxy, to exchange, instead of. It is only in derivative words that this vagueness is avoided. Derivation is effected by infixes, prefixes, affixes, and reduplication. Infixes occur more rarely in Malay than in the cognate tongues. Examples are— gιιruh, a rumbling noise, gumûruh, to make such a noise; tunjuk, to point, telunjuk, the forefinger; chûchuk, to pierce, cherüchuk, a stockade. The import of the prefixes—me (meng, men, men, mem), pë (pëng, pen, pen, pern), ber (bel), per, pel, ka, di, ter,—and affixes—an, kan, i, lah—will best appear from the following examples: ·root word äjar, to teach, to learn; mëngâjar, to instruct (expresses an action); bëlâjar, to study (state or condition); mëngajâri, to instruct (some one, trans. ); mëngâjarkan, to instruct (in something, causative); pëngâjar, the instructor; pl·lajar, the learner; pëngajâran, the lesson taught, also the school; pëlajâran, the lesson learnt; diäjar, to be learnt; ttiäjar, learnt; tërâjarkan, taught; tërajâri, instructed; [përâja (from râja, prince), to recognize as prince; përajâkan, to crown as prince; karajâan, royalty]*; äjarkanlah, teach! Examples of reduplication are— ajar-ajar, a sainted person; âjar-bërâjar (or bèlâjar), to be learning and teaching by turns; similarly there are forms like âjar-mëngâjar, bërâjar· ajäran, âjar-ajâri, mëmpërâjar, mtinpërâjarkan, ni&nptraj&ri, tërbëlâjarkan, përbëlâjarkan, &c. Altogether there are upwards of a hundred possible derivative forms, in the idiomatic use of which the Malays exhibit much skill. See especially H. von Dewall, De vormυeranderingcn der Maleische tool, Batavia, 1864; and J. Pijnappel, Maleisch-Hollandsch Woordenboek, Amsterdam, 1875, ‘ ‘ lnleiding.” In every other respect the language is characterized by great simplicity and indefiniteness. There is no inflexion to distinguish number, gender, or case. Number is never indicated when the sense is obvious or can be gathered from the context; otherwise plurality is expressed by adjectives such as sagäla, all, and bähak, many, more rarely by the repetition of the noun, and the indefinite singular by sa or sätu, one, with a class-word. Gender may, if necessary, be distinguished by the words laki-läki, male, and përampûan, female, in the case of persons, and of jantan and bëtina in the case of animals. The genitive case is generally indicated by the position of the word after its governing noun. Also adjectives and demonstrative pronouns have their places after the noun. Comparison is effected by the use of particles. Instead <rf the personal pronouns, both in their full and abbreviated forms,-conventional nouns are in frequent use to indicate the social position or relation of the respective interlocutors, as, e.g., hamba tuan, the master’s slave, i.e., I. These nouns vary according to the different localities. Another peculiarity of Malay (and likewise of Chinese, Shan, Talaing, Burmese, and Siamese) is the use of certain classwords or coefficients with numerals, such as orang (man), when speaking of persons, ckor (tail) of animals, këping (piece) of flat things, biji (seed) of roundish things; e.g., lima biji tëlor, five eggs. The number of these class-words is considerable. Malay verbs have neither person or number nor mood or tense. The last two are sometimes indicated by particles or auxiliary verbs; but these are generally dispensed with if the meaning is sufficiently plain without them. The Malays avoid the building up of long sentences. The two main rules by which the order of the words in a sentence is regulated are—subject, verb, object; and qualifying words follow those which they qualify. This is quite the reverse of what is the rule in Burmese.

The history of the Malays amply accounts for the number and variety of foreign ingredients in their language. Hindus appear to have settled in Sumatra and Java as early as the 4th century of our era, and to have continued to exercise sway over the native populations for many centuries. These received from them into their language a very large number of Sanskrit terms from which we can infer the nature of the civilizing influence imparted by the Hindu rulers. Not only in words concerning commerce and agriculture, but also in terms connected with social, religious, and administrative matters, that influence is traceable in Malay. See W. E. Maxwell, Manual of the Malay Language, 1882, pp. 5-34, where this subject is treated more fully than by previous writers. This Sanskrit element forms such an integral part of the Malay vocabulary that in spite of the subsequent infusion of Arabic and Persian words adopted in the usual course of Mohammedan conquest it has retained its ancient citizenship in the language. The number of Portuguese, English, Dutch, and Chinese words in Malay is not considerable; their presence is easily accounted for by political or commercial contact.

The Malay language abounds in idiomatic expressions, which constitute the chief difficulty’ in its acquisition. It is sparing in the use of personal pronouns, and prefers impersonal and elliptical diction. As it is rich in specific expressions for the various aspects of certain ideas, it is requisite to employ always the most appropriate term suited -to the particular aspect. In Maxwell’s Manual, pp. 120 sq., no less than sixteen terms are given to express the different kinds of striking, as many for the different kinds of speaking, eighteen for the various modes of carrying, &c. An unnecessary distinction has been made between High Malay and Low Malay. The latter is no separate dialect at all, but a mere brogue or jargon, the medium of intercourse between illiterate natives and Europeans too indolent to apply themselves to the acquisition of the language of the people; its vocabulary is made up of Malay words, with a conventional admixture of words from other languages; and it varies, not only in different localities, but also in proportion to the individual speaker’s acquaintance with Malay proper. The use is different as regards the term Jäwi as applied to the Malay language. This has its origin in the names Great Java and Lesser Java, by which the mediaeval Java and Sumatra were called, and it accordingly means the language spoken along the coasts of the two great islands. - ,

Malay is probably spoken with greatest purity in the Khιo-Lin<'o∙a Archipelago and in the independent states of Perak and Kedah, on the western coast of the peninsula of Malacca. ' In other states of the peninsula (Johor, Tringganu, Kelantan) dialectical divergencies both as to pronunciation and the use of words have been noted. The most important and the most interesting of all the Malay dialects is that of Menangkabo (Menangkarbau) in the residency of Padang and in Upper Jambi, in Central Sumatra. It abounds in diphthongs, and prefers vocalic to consonantal terminations, thus changing final al and ar into α , , il and ir into iye, ill and ar into uwe, as and at into e ’ , «sinto uwi ; final a mostly passes into ô, so that for suddra and suddgar they say sud&rô, suctëgô ; the emphatic -l(ih is turned into -malah or malah hd ; the prefixes Mr, për, tër are changed into bd, pä, tä, or bard, para, tara. Among other changes in pronunciation may be noted ûrang for orang, mungko for maka, lai for lägi ; they use nan for yang, na' for hendak, deh for oleh, ba' for bâgai, pai for pergi, ko' for jikalau, &c. . In some districts of Menangkabo (Palembang, Lebong) the llenchong character is in general use in writing this dialect, for which purpose it is far better suited than the Arabic. As early as 1822 a small tract on the customs and traditions of Moko-Moko, in this dialect, was printed with a translation at Bencoolen. But it is only in recent years that the Dutch have commenced to pay the dialect the attention it deserves, by publishing texts, with transliteration and translations,...