animal of the Equine family is known in the Peninsula, for the horse itself is not
found even in the domestic state. A country covered with forest or marsh, and where
it would be difficult to find a mile of firm open land, is eminently unsuited to it.
The ox or the buffalo takes its place. Even in Malacca, under the Malays, the horse
seems not to have been used; at least the early Portuguese make no mention of it.
In Sumatra, however, where there are extensive open plains, the horse is frequent,
although even here, it may be suspected to be exotic, since tbere is no name for it, except
the corruption of a Sanscrit one. The species of Ruminants are nine in number,
namely, four deer, the goat, the buffalo, and three species of ox. Two of the deer
are smaller than the European hare, a third about the size of a fallow deer, and ^ the
fourth as large as an elk. The domestic goat is a small mean-looking animal, of little
value; and there exists in the forest a wild one, the same with that of Sumatra.
The buffalo attains its greatest size in the Peninsula, and is larger than that of Java,
or of Cochin-China, both of which far exceed the buffalo of Italy, and in a still greater
degree that of Continental India. The domestic ox is a short-legged, compact,
strong and hardy animal. The wild species are two, the Sunda ox of Java and Borneo,
and an undescribed one called by the Malays saladang, and which would seem to be
peculiar to the Peninsula. The sheep is known to the Malays of the Peninsula only
by its Sanscrit name biri, and as a partially acclimated stranger. The hare is wholly
unknown, and the rabbit only in the domestic state, introduced by the Portuguese,
the name tarwelu and kuwelu being probably a strange corruption of the Portuguese
conejera.
The most remarkable birds of the Peninsula are those of the gallinaceous and
pigeon families. Of the first, there are the peacock, or m&rak of the Malays, the
same as that of Java, but differing from that of India, and never seen in the
domesticated state; the double.spurred peacock, smaller than the European pheasant,
a beautiful but shy and timid bird; three species of pheasant, including the Argus,
or the kuwau of the Malays; a partridge, the Perdrix Javanica; and the cock in the
wild and domestic state, the last a small bird but of great courage. The species of
pigeons are very numerous, from those of the size of a thrush to that of the European
ring-dove, the prevailing colour being green, and some of-them being probably migratory.
Snipes are numerous, and quails rare. In the wild state, there is but one duck,
a teal, and no goose. The only poultry of the Peninsula, in so far as the Malays are
concerned, is the common fowl and the duck. The goose is known only by its
Sanscrit name, angsa ; and the peacock and rock pigeon have not been domesticated.
The parrot family, in Malay nuri, the same word which we have converted into loory,
is numerous, but none of the species equal in brilliancy of plumage to those of New
Guinea, and its adjacent islands. The esculent-nest-making swallow, the lawit of
the Malays, exists in the caves of the coast of some of the islands, but is not numerous.
The birds of prey are numerous, and consist of kites, alang, and hawks, alapalap, in
Malay. The vulture does not exist, and there is no hawk of a size to entitle it to
the designation of an eagle. _
The reptiles consist of the alligator, the iguana, and several species of small lizard,
and of probably at least forty different species of snakes, of which not more than one
in ten are poisonous. Among the innoxious snakes is a python, and among the
poisonous ones a cobra. Both the seas that wash the shores of the Peninsula, but
more especially the comparatively shallow and sheltered one which parts it from
Sumatra, abound in fish, which form the principal animal sustenance of the great
mass of the inhabitants. Among fish the seal and the whale do not exist, the latter
being known to the Malays only by a Sanscrit name, gajah-mina, which signifies
“ elephant fish.” The only cetaceous animal is the duyong, which our naturalists by
the miataVn of a single letter have converted into dugong. This animal, not very
frequent, lives in the shallow waters, feeding on submarine plants, and its flesh is
esculent, being much superior to that of the green turtle. The fresh water fish are
not abundant, nor held in much esteem by the natives, but some of those of the sea
are of excellent flavour; and the white pomfret, the bawal of the Malays, is certainly
one of the most delicate fishes in the world to the European palate, being less rich
than the turbot, and higher flavoured than the sole.
As to climate, that of the Peninsula is hot and moist. These qualities necessarily
belong to a region that reaches to within 74 miles of the equator, that in so far as the
proper country of the Malays is concerned, is not above 6° distant from it,—that
is almost surrounded by the sea, and seldom more than 50 miles away from i t ; and
the vastly greater portion of which is covered with a dense and ever-verdant forest. The
whole Peninsula is, alternately, protected from both monsoons by its own mountain
range and by the more elevated ones of Sumatra, with the exception of its eastern side,
and even this is exposed only to the north-eastern monsoon. Every where else, and at
all seasons land and sea-breezes, calms and variable winds, prevail, interrupted to
the north by occasional squalls from the north-west, and throughout by heavier ones
from the south-west, not exceeding an hour or two’s continuance, known to mariners
from the direction frpm which they blow as “ Sumatras.”
At Penang, in latitude 5° 15' north, the mean annual temperature, at the level of
the sea, is nearly 80°, and the mean range from 70° to 90°. At the height of 2410
feet, the mean of the year is 70°, and the range 10°, from which we may infer
that the average temperature of the year at the highest elevation of the peninsula,
Mount Ophir, is rather less than 40°. The average number of rainy days in the year
is 182; a rainy season being but indistinctly marked. Heavy dews fall in all clear
nights throughout the year, and fogs, although not dense ones, are frequent, especially
during the most rainy season. At Malacca, in latitude 2° 14', the mean temperature
of the year is 80°, and the range 15°. At Singapore, in latitude 1° 17', the average
heat of the year is 82°, and the range from 68° to 92°. The fall of rain here is
frequent, generally every third day, although a continuous drought of ten or fourteen
days occasionally occurs. A rainy season is scarcely distinguishable. Generally, the
climate of the peninsula, notwithstanding its heat and moisture, is not insalubrious,
although a few ill-ventilated spots here and there occur with most pestiferous malaria.
With the exception of a few nomad negritos in the mountains of the northern
portion of the peninsula, the S&mang of the natives, the whole of the inhabitants of
the peninsula, not strangers, are of the Malay race and speak the Malay language.
Besides the settled and cultivated Malays, they consist of land, river, and sea
nomads. The first practise a rude agriculture, and have dwellings of some permanency
: the second live on fish, and wild roots, dwelling entirely in their boats without
quitting the rivers; and the third are the sea-gypsies, who rove over the whole
archipelago. The two first classes are divided into many small tribes, frequently
designated by the names of the localities which they chiefly frequent. The names of
at least a dozen of these tribes have been given by Mr. Logan and others, such as
Jakun, Udai, Sakai, Basisi, Sabimba, Mintira, &c. For an example of the manners
and condition of these rude people generally, I shall transcribe the very graphic and
well-written account of a river-tribe given by Mr. J. D„ Thomson, in an article in the
“ Journal of the Archipelago.’’ This tribe takes its name, Saletar, from a creek in the
island of Singapore, on the narrow strait which divides it from the main land, not
above eight miles distant from the flourishing and civilised British emporium. Its
numbers are about 200, living in forty boats or canoes, and their range in queBt of
subsistence does not exceed thirty square miles. “ Their language,” says Mr. Thomson,
“ is the Malayan, and considerable pains were taken to elieit any words foreign to that
language, but without success. As a proof of their possessing the same language as
the Malays, I may mention that the children were heard, when playing, to converse
in this language, and were perfectly understood by the Malays amongst our crew.
They are possessed of no weapons, either offensive or defensive. Their minds do not
find a higher range than necessity compels; -the satisfying of hunger is their only
pursuit. Of water they have abundance without search. With the earkab, or fish-
spear, and the parang, or chopper, as their only implements, they eke out a miserable
existence from the stores of the rivers and forests. They neither dig nor plant, and
yet live, nearly independent of their fellow men; for to them, the staple of life in
the East, rice, is a luxury. Tobacco they procure by the barter of fish, and a few
marketables collected from the forests and coral reefs. Of esculent roots, they have
the prioh and kalana, both bulbous, and not unlike coarse yams. Of fruits, they eat
the tampiii, kledang, and buroh, when they come in season; and of animals, they
hunt the wild hog, but refrain from snakes, dogs, iguanas, and monkeys. On their
manners and customs I must need be short, as only long acquaintance with their
prejudices and domestic feelings, could afford a clue to the. impulse of their actions.
Of a Creator, they have not the slightest comprehension, a fact so difficult to believe,
when we find that the most degraded of the human race, in other quarters of the globe,
have an intuitive idea of this unerring and primary truth imprinted on their minds,
that I took the greatest care to find a slight image of the deity within the chaos of
them thoughts, however degraded such might be, but was disappointed. They
know neither the god or the devil of the Christians or Mahommedans, although they
confessed they had been told of such; nor any of the demi-gods of Hindu mythology,
many of whom were recounted to them. In the three great epochs of their individual
life, we consequently find no rites or ceremonies enacted. At birth, the child is only
s