378 SHARKS
from it about 75 miles. I t is computed to have an area of 180 geographical square
miles. The surface of the country is mountainous and rocky, with a very scanty
supply of water. In ordinary years, however, the inhabitants raise a sufficiency
of maiz, millet and yams, for their own subsistence, and in times of scarcity, obtain a
living from the banana, and the sugar of the lontar palm (Borassus flabelliformis), both
of which are abundant. The island produces a small quantity of tobacco reputed to
be of a very fine quality. Thus we find two American plants, among the staple
products of this sequestered island, namely, maiz and tobacco. The principal
domesticated animals of Savoe are the buffalo and horse, both of which are abundant.
In personal appearance, the people resemble those of Timur, but are said to
differ materially from those of the neighbouring island of Rotti, that is, they are
short, dark eomplexioned, and have frizzled hair instead of lank. Their language is
peculiar, although intermixed with some words of the dialects of Timur and with
Malay and Javanese. The women go naked with the exception of a short petticoat,
and the men wear no other dress than a bit of cloth wrapped round the loins. The
whole population is reckoned at 5000, and the island, with the neighbouring ones, are
dependencies of the Netherland government of Kupang in Timur.
SEA, the Ocean. The Malay has three words for the sea, namely, lau t and
tasik, which are native words, and luji which is Arabic, the last of rare use. The
Javanese has five, namely, the two Malay ones, and samudra and sagara which are
Sancrit, with s&gantkn, a derivation from the last of these for the polite dialect. The
native words laut and tasik are of very wide currency, being found in nearly all the
languages of the Malay Archipelago, and extending even to the languages of the
Philippines, although in these accompanied by native synonyms. They do not
extend to the languages of the islands of the South Sea, nor to the language of
Madagascar, yet in the last, the sea is expressed by a Malayan compounded word,
ranumasina (ranu-masin), which signifies “ salt water.” In Malay all that is connected
with the sea, as might be expected with the language of a peculiarly sea-faring people,
has a copious phraseology. Thus, we have specific terms for interior and sea-board, for
going with or against the current, for current, tide, ebb and flow, for cove, islet, strait,
various kinds of shoals, dry land the correlative of sea or water; not to mention the
enumeration of winds, which amount to no fewer than sixteen.
SERWATI, or SELAWATI, is the name of a chain of islets extending from the
large island of Timur, towards the considerable one of Timur-laut, the most westerly
of which is Kisser or Kissa, and the most easterly Sermata. The inhabitants are of
the Malayan race, speak a peculiar language, and are a peaceable and industrious
people raising yams and sweet potatos, the lontar palm for its sugar, and rearing
poultry and hogs. Mr. Windsor Earl who visited them, describes the people as
divided into three castes, namely, lords or rulers, proprietors of the land, and
serfs or labourers.
SHADDOCK, or PUHPLENOOSE. The Citrus decumana of botanists, the
kadangsa of the Malays, and the jaruk-machan, or tiger-orange of the Javanese, is very
generally disseminated over the whole Malay Archipelago, but unlike the mangostin
and durian, is a fine fruit only when well and carefully cultivated, as it is at Batavia
and Malacca, where it attains a perfection which, in these regions, no other of the
orange family reaches. It is, most probably, a fruit originally peculiar to the Malay
Archipelago, and the names which it bears in other countries shows that in these it
is an exotic. Thus in the continent of India it is called the “ Batavian orange,” and
in our West Indian islands the shaddock, which it takes from the name of the commander
of a merchant ship that carried it from Batavia to these islands. As Batavia
was only founded in the year 1619, and Captain Shaddock lived in the reign of
Queen Anne, it is certain that the introduction of the fruit into both the countries
named is of comparatively modem date.
SHAFEI. The patronymic of a celebrated Mahommedan doctor, the founder of
one of the four sects considered by the Arabians as orthodox. All the Mahommedans
of the Indian Islands belong to his sect. He was a native of Syria, and flourished in
the eighth century, or about three centuries before the earliest conversions of the
inhabitants of the Archipelago to Islam. These know little about him or his
doctrines.
SHARKS. These predatory fish, which are numerous, and of great size in the
seas of the Archipelagos, are only named here on account of their fins being a regular
article of trade for the market of China, where they are prized for their real or imaSHASTRE
379 SIAM
ginary stimulating and restorative qualities. The name for the shark in Malay and
Javanese is Iyu, or, abbreviated, Yu, and this has a very extensive currency, for it is
even found in some dialects of the islands of the Pacific.
SHASTRE. This celebrated Sanscrit word is unknown to the languages of the
Malay Archipelago, in its Bense of a scripture or sacred writing. In the form of
sastra, it signifies, in Malay, an alphabetic character, and written language, as distinguished
from oral.
SHEEP. This animal is undoubtedly an exotic in all the islands of both Archipelagos,
the moist and hot climates of which are ill suited to it. I t exists only, and in
small numbers, in a few places where the Hindus or Europeans have settled, as Achin,
Java, and Luzon in the Philippines. They are most numerous in the latter country,
particularly in the province of Ilocos, introduced by the Spaniards, most probably,
through America. The wool, however, is coarse, and the natives will not eat the
flesh. The name by which it is known to the Malays and Javanese is the Sanscrit
one, biri, although they occasionally call it “ the European goat.”
SHIELD, on BUCKLER. This arm seems to have been universal over the Malay
and Philippine Archipelagos before the introduction of fire-arms, and is still continued
by all the ruder tribes. In Malay, there are no fewer than seven different names for
it, four of which are native,—two taken from the Javanese, and one from the Tstlugu.
These names, however, rather refer to the different forms of it, than constitute
synonyms.
SHIP. The name for a large trading vessel in Malay and Javanese is jung, which
the Portuguese converted into junco; and we, improving on this corruption, into
junk. This is the word which we apply to the large trading vessels of the Chinese,
which the Malays and Javanese call by the name of wangkang. The natives of the
Archipelago have not now, and seem never to have had a square lagged vessel. The
people of the Coromandel coast, the Telingas, who traded immemorially with the
Archipelago, had vessels of this class, and from them the Indian Islanders borrowed,
and naturalised the name for them, namely, kapal.
SHRIMPS and PRAWNS. These are very numerous along the coasts of the
islands of both Archipelagos, under the name of udang in Malay, and urang in
Javanese. They form, almost everywhere, a very material portion of the animal
food of the people. The form in which they are commonly used is that of a paste,
formed by mashing them,.—well known to the Malays under the name of balachan,
turned by Europeans into balachong, and to the Javanese by that of trasi. This is
used as a condiment, and forms a very material article of native trade between the
coasts and interior.
SIAK, OB SI YAK, is the name of a Malay state on the north-eastern side of
Sumatra, as well as of its principal river and town. The river, the finest in Sumatra,
has its origin in the central chain of mountains, and, after passing through an extensive
alluvial plain, disembogues in the Straits of Malacca, nearly opposite to the
island of Bungkalis, and at the northern end of Brewer's Strait, in north latitude
1° 30', and east longitude 102° 10'. The mouth of the river is about three-
quarters of a mile wide, but almost closed by a sand-bank, in some places dry at low
water, and leaving a very narrow navigable channel only, but still a safe one for
vessels of considerable burden. After passing this bar, the water deepens to five
fathoms, and fifteen miles from the mouth of the river, there are still from seven to
nine fathoms. The river is, in fact, navigable for vessels of large burden for eighty miles
up, and for a hundred for vessels not exceeding 200 tons. Altogether, including boat
navigation, its navigable course is not less than 150 miles, so that it may be considered
the most useful stream in Sumatra. The town of Siak is about eighty miles from the
mouth of the river, and described as a considerable place, but no details are given.
Neither have we any account of the extent or population of the state itself. Siak,
under the name of Ciaca, is one of the twenty-nine states mentioned by De Barros as
occupying the sea-board of Sumatra when the Portuguese first appeared in the waters
of the Archipelago.
SIAM. This name for the kingdom and its people is taken directly from the
Malay, in which it is Siy&m, and this again is said to be derived from the ancient
Siamese name of the country and its principal inhabitants, Sayam. The present
Siamese, however, call themselves Thai, a word which, in their language, means
" free.”, It is probably equivalent to Franks, or freemen, and was probably first used