Page:The Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia (IA journalindianar00loga).pdf/380

their minds, that I took the greatest care to find a slight image of the deity within the chaos of their thoughts, even however degraded such might be, but was disappointed. They neither know the God nor Devil of the Christian or Mahomedan, though they confessed they had been told of such, nor any of the demigods of Hindoo mythology, many of whom were recounted to them. In the three great epochs of their individual lives, we consequently find no rites or ceremonies enacted; at birth the child is only welcomed to the world by the mother's joy; at marriage, a mouth full of tobacco and one chupah of rice handed to the mother, confirm the hymeneal tye. At death the deceased are wrapped in their garments, and committed to the parent earth. "The women weep a little, then leave the spot" were the words of our simple narrator. Of párís, dewás, mambángs and other light spirits that haunt each mountain, rock, and tree in the Malayan conception, they did not know the name,—nor had they any thing to be afraid of, as they themselves said, than the "Gállang Pirates," who are men like themselves. With this I was forced to be contented, and teazed them no more about the subject. They do not practice circumcision, nor other Mahomedan customs. Their women intermarry with the Malays which appears to be not unfrequent, they also give their women to Chinese, and an old woman told us of her having been united to individuals of both nations, in an early period of her life. It was further related to me, that many years ago, when they had a Malay as their Batin, nearly all the men now of their tribe were induced to undergo the rite of circumcision, though such a practice is not comformed with. Their tribe though confining their range within the limits of 30 miles square, may still be considered of a very wandering kind; in their sampans barely sufficicient to float their load they skirt the mangroves, collecting their food from the shores and forests as they proceed exhausting one spot and then searching for another. To one accustomed to the comforts and artificial wants of a civilized life, theirs as a contrast appears to be extreme; huddled up in a small boat hardly measuring 20 feet in length, they find all the domestic comfort that they are in want of; at one end is seen the fire-place, in the middle are the few uten-