find no trace, but before much can be said on this subject great caution must be used, as is well known to those who have to sift evidence, from wild, ignorant and indolent tribes, and who alone can estimate the difficulty of gaining a correct notion of the peculiarities of their ideas on such points. It is therefore to ethnographical enquiry that we may expect to be indebted for any slight glimpses of this interesting topic. As I before stated they speak the language of the Malays with much less a degree of difference in pronunciation, than may be found in stepping from one county in England to another. They may therefore be said with little fear of contradiction to be merely unconverted Malays in the general acceptation of the term, though a distinct class from the Malays properly so called, who poured their hordes over the Archipelago[1] prior to 1200 of the Christian era from the great river Malayoo in Sumatra. While all the tribes of Malays on the coast of the Malayan Peninsula, and adjoining islands have embraced the tenets of Mahomed, they have remained unaffected by the movement. The nomenclature of individuals, remains the same as when Hindooism held sway over the Archipelago, and we find in their proper names an astonishing degree of similarity to the names of Malayan heroes prior to the conversion of the race as men tioned in the Sijarah Malayu and other works.[2] As a list of proper names will be interesting, the following is a small collection.
Males.
- Kissah
- Kosan
- Nassap
- Dosan
- Kassap
- Nosan
- Kadang
- Masei
- Sadang
- Penis
- Awin
- Soning
- Singal
- Desan
Females.
- Nongei
- Neekang
- Sookang
- Sang Kang
- Boon teh
- Impang
In physiognomy they are closely allied to the "Biduanda Kallang" noticed in your paper on that tribe. This coupled with the fact that the Slétar and Kallang are both creeks of the island of Singapore, the original locality of each, and that sampans can approach the na-
