tant from the town only 8 miles, gives its name to the tribe, and is situated nearly in the middle of their range. They number in all 40 boats, or 200 people, and are subject to a Batin or petty chief whose names is Keding. Their de facto sovereign is the Tomungong of Johore, who can command their services in the manner of a feudal lord. Their language is the Malayan, and considerable pains was taken to elicit any words foreign to that language, but without effect. Their dialect is the same as that of the Oráng Laut of Tulloh Blangah, but spoken with a slightly more guttural accent, and they clip their words as much as the natives of Keddáh. 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 serkap or fish spear, and the parang or chopper, as their only implements, they eke out a miser- able existence from the stores of the rivers and forest; they neither dig nor plant, and still live nearly independent of their fellow men, for to them the staple of lite in the east, rice, is a luxury; tobacco they procure by the barter of fish, and a few marketable products 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 támpuí, klédáng and búroh, when they come in season, and of animals they hunt the wild hog, but refrain from snakes, dogs, guanas and monkeys. Such are their principal means, of subsistence, for many minor products of the forests and creeks must, be left unmentioned.
On their manners and customs, I must needs 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 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
