Part I

""'N- V .,-- ,,- 0"-

.... .t , j' . ". 5!NGAPORE"

CONTENTS.
Preface_
1. Culture, Breed and Language among Malayan
Aborigines
2. Summary of Previous Records
Part II 1. An Outline of the Perak-Kelantan water-
shed: and the expeditions
Part III
2. The Breed and Culture of the PIe-Temiar
Senoi
3. Demography: the Ple-Temiar population
CONTACTS
1. The Temiar and the Forests
2. The Temiar and Cultivation
3. The Temiar and Wild Life
4. The Temiar and Health.
5. Temiar Trade and Enterprise
6. The Temiar and Culture Contact
Part IV PROPOSED ABORIGINAL POLICY
1. Present circumstances affecting the Status
of the Temiar
2. The Scheme of a Controlled Reservation and
Pattern SettlemeI!ts
3. Summary of Provisions necessary in propos<!d
Enactment
4. Conclusion
Page 1
4
10
21
33
40
41
43
44
46
51
61
62
67
73
Appendices I, II, III. IV. V, VI
\.
PREFACE.
Half a century of pioneer work umong the aborigines of the
Peninsula has prepared a setting in which it is profitable, in the
north at any rate, to describe each group intensively according to
modern functional methods. Skeat and Blagden'sl classical study on
the pagan races ' provided a basic survey compiled from many sources
from which it appeared that there were broadly speaking three
aboriginal "complexes," the woolly-haired nomads of the north and
north-east, predominantly Negritos; the straight-haired, "proto-
Malay" jungle dwellers of the south, usually termed Jakun; and in the
centre the wavy-haired Senoi or "Sakai." Mr. I. H. N. Evans and
Pater Schebesta have more recently described the northern Negrito
groups in some detail: the ethnographical survey of the south has
advanced little since Skeat' s time, and so for the past three or four
years the present writer has concentrated upon the Senoi of the
main range of the peninsula. The results of this research will be
published in succeeding numbers of this joumal. The present number
is intended to clear the ground for the presentation of these facts
and to supply the geographical setting. Some two years ago the
writer was invited to make a report to Government on the welfare
and distribution of the northem Senoi who inhabit the mountains
between Perak and Kelantan, and Lv discuss policies of reservation.
The second half of this number is based therefore upon this Report,
and a succinct account of the breed and culture of the Temiar Senoi
naturally finds its place as a basis for any discussion bearing on
aboriginal policy. A demographic survey of the territory follows
logically upon the account of their environment, and a preliminary
statement of evidence bearing upon the population is included here,
as affecting the problems with which Government is faced. A more
detailed analysis of vital statistics will accompany the .second part
of the monograph, which will deal with the sociology of the Temiar.
So soon as the physical and observations made on the
living .subjects in the field have been worked out statistically by a
specialist in physical anthropolog"'j a subsequent number will be
devoted entirely to their breed. Their language, material culture,
magico-religious beliefs and mythology will also be dealt with fully.
Investigations of such an intensive nature could never have been
carried out but for the courtesy of the Government of Perak in
according me the opportunity and facilities for the work.
1 Pagall Raus of tlw lIfa.lay Penin81tla, Volumes I and H. W. W. Skeat and
C. O. Blagden. Macmillan & Co., London, 1906.
Journ. F. M. S. Mus. - Vol. XIX.
Frontispiece.
HILL TEMIAR DANCING THE "KANANYAR",
PART I.
CUL TURE, BREED AND LANGUAGE.
The aboriginal races of the Malay Peninsula are generally
known locally as "Sakai." An inclusive name for the various tribes is
desirable, and "Sakai," having become fashionable, will serve the
purpose best. Yet it is important to clear up many misapp:'ehensions
about the use of this term.
The first is one of scientific terminology. Unfortunately, earl?
investigators in the Peninsula, following Annandale, restricted the
scope of the term .. Sakai" applying it only to the wavy-haired Senoi
tribes of the main range of the Peninsula. Dr. Rudolf Martin and
Mr. 1. H. N. Evans alone stood out against this practice, which has
caused confusion locally, well-read people using the term in variance
of vernacular usage. Pater Schebesta, who has done so much to
record accurately the proper names of the nomadic Negrito tribes,
(on the principle of adopting their own word for" fellow man"
followed by the tribal name perhaps originally applied by neighbours)
has given sanction to this restricted use of "Sakai" which still
persists in -the literature of comparative anthropology. I propose to
accept the popular local usage of .. Sakai" as a general term, and to
substitute" Senoi" for the wavy-haired people.
Certain groups of Negrito nomads in Upper Perak and elsewhere
in the north certainly fell into almost complete economic dependence
on Malays; but the mere fact that these groups were distinguished
as " hamba," whilst the neighbouring hill tribes were not, shews that
the term .. Sakai" does not necessarily imply dependence.
It will be apparent from the above argument that .. Sakai"
must include a variety of peoples. It is essential to realise this
qualification when using the term, which can only be a convenient
but approximate label. These tribeR may be classified from three
points of view. On the linguistic side the nomad collectors alone
furnish us with six dialects: and the Senoi and Jakun contribute
about six more. Generalisations, for example, about extent of
"Sakai" vocabulary and "Sakai" numeral systems frequently quoted,
have little meaning. At least two dialects have numeral systems up .
to ten and the statement that all " Sakai" cannot count above three
is incorrect.
From the point of view of physical type, alt}1Ough it is convenient
to speak of three main groups, anthropometric analysis and observa-
tion shew that there is probably no group which is homogeneous, and
the fact is that at least four racial types, if not more, can be
distinguished among the "Sakai," and at most we can only speak
of anyone group being predomirw.ntl?j N e ~ i t o or predominantly
2
Journal of tke F.M.S. Museums
[VOL. XIX,
Proto-Malay. The Australo-Melanesoid type, for instance! occurs
occasionally among all groups. It is impossible to be dogmatic a?out
the average stature of the "Sakai." One element is. comparabvely
tall, individuals of five feet nine inches or more occurnng.
We are left therefore with the third consideration, that .of the
mode of life. There is, once again, no such thing as a
II Sakai" culture .. There are tribes who are, practically speakiDg,
nomad collectors: others who plant catch crops and build a temporary
village of flimsy little houses: yet who make
settlements in long-houses on the higher ranges and rotate their
plantations on the hill slopes around: one group plants
wet padi, owns buffaloe.'l, yet speaks a non-Malay dialect.
The mode of life is the most consistent basis fur classification:
the physical types are too scattered.
The most primitive mode of life in the is of
the nomadic "collectors." These are a senes of tnbes hvmg
mainly in the north. but penetrating far south in isolated groups
into Pahang on the east of the Peninsula. These peoples are
predominantly Negritos. though other elements are present. Perhaps
the historical fact is that the" collecting" mode of life has been the
principal means of survival of the purer Negrito type, for where
Negritoid types are found following other modes of life they .the
results of intermarriage. The Malays and also the otheraborlgme3
who possess a higher (material) culture recognise these tribes under
the deprecatory names of Semang (Kedah), Pangan (Kelantan,
Trengganu, North Pahang), .. Orang Liar," .. Orang Belukar" and so
forth. Thanks to the researches of Mr.!. H. N. Evans and Pater
Schebesta these are the best known aborigines.
A higher mode of life is that characterised by the planting of
catch crops, and the building of more permanent
diet is largely dependent on trapping and the blowpipe. This IS
perhaps the most widely spread mode of life, and is followed by the
predominantly wavy-haired lowland Semai Senoi in South Perak and
North-west Pahang, and also the Proto-Malay Jakun of Johore, South
Pahang and Negri Sembilan.
Perhaps the most formidable group are the Temiar or Northern
Senoi who inhabit the main range from Gunong Noring, south to
Cameron Highlands. They possess a typical hill culture, live in long
houses (of early Indonesian type) and practise a much modified shift-
ing cultivation, planting up successive plots on the hill slopes around.
Many groups remain seven or eight years in one spot. They maIn-
tained their independence of the Malays, even before the British
regime. This hill culture extends down among the hill Semai: it is
associated with a predominantly Indonesian (Nesiot) physical type, in
many ways the finest aboriginal stock in the peninsula. Yet the down
river Temiar, though to a less extent than among the Semai, do not
exhibit this intensive cultivation and the large houses, and are predo-
minantly of more primitive racial stocks called for the present the
II older strata."
1936] Culture, Breed and Language 3
On the eastern slopes of Benom, chie.fly on the Sungei Krau,
(but also to the south on the Kerdau, and probably in the U1u Tekai
and Ulu Remaman), are the enigmatical Jah Chong, whose mode of
life is similar to the Malays. They plant "sawah" (wet padi): somp
groups own buffalos and like many other Indonesians practise circum-
cision without regarding this rite as an initiation to Islam. Yet they
speak a language of their own. They appear to be a fair mixture of
wavy-haired (Indonesian) and straight-haired Proto-Malay, but they
occasionally intermarry with the elusive Negrito nomads whom they
call "Kleb" or "Orang Liar." Perhaps we should add the mode of life
of the "Orang Laut," predominantly Proto-Malay sea gypsies, whose
only dwellings are their boats and whose livelihood is mainly fishing.
Though these interesting peoples arc found all around the coasts of
Malaysia from Mergui to Celebes under the name of Orang Manfang,
Orang Bajau, etc., very f.ew persist in this mode of life along
the coasts of the peninsula. Reports of their movements would be
valuable.
It is important to lay stress on these diversities because they
seem to be unobtrusive. There is, of course, a highest common
factor for all the groups, but this is lower than a superficial study
would lead one to think. On the whole they tend to live in the jungle,
though some make clearings extensive enough to be able to speak of"
II going intL the jungle" when they pass from one settlement to the
other. They do not profess any of the world religions to any extent.
They rely mostly on their environment for the major needs of life.
Their allegiances are for the most part local. and their loyalties are
to the group: yet outside these limits their feeling of "community"
as expressed in their language may be far wider, though not always
prepotent.
. When we are concerned with any particular group, we find the
mterplay of all three elements, the language, the" organisation" or
mode of life, and the breed of men. Speech is a mode of social
behaviour: without the medium of speech human society in its known
forms would be impossible. The language a particular group speaks
holds it apart from groups speaking other tongues, whilst community
of speech breeds intercourse. The composition of the breed of a
particular people follows on this intercourse through intermarriage.
the Senoi and the northern Negrito groups, physically
disparate, meet, they learn each others language and the offsnring of
the hybrid marriages join the mother's group. In the south two
neighbouring groups whose breed is almost identical do not know
each others language and speak Malay when they meet, and the
offspring of mixed marriages join the group of the father.
Speech and culture are most often interdependent: breed is more
dispersed. 'When groups possessing a common culture distinguish
their fellows as "senoi" in Conrad's sense of "one of us" and refer to
strangers of different culture and alier; tongue as "gob" or "stranger,"
their community of feeling is reflected in their language and so
plainly has common limits with that language. Yet some of their
"fellows" may be physical types also represented in the "stranger"
group. In so far as no group is homogeneow') in breed the motive force
4 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums [VOL. XIX,
behind the organisation of separatt! groups is prepotently cultural,
and the language is the most assertive expression of this fact.
Many tribes indulge in external trade, washing tin and tapping
jelutong, whilst most groups collect rattans for sale. Some earn
salaries as elephant drivers, others as labourers for felling on estates,
whilst on Cameron Highlands some !lave settled down to permanent
occupation on one estate.
Such statements as "the simple Sakai" or "these most pathetic
of people" are entirely elliptical. The word "Sakai" in fact is only
useful provided one remembers it means very little: it covers as we
have seen at least four types of culture, twelve dialects and four or
five racial types. A common error is to select some trait which
characterisel" one particular group, tram;port it in "cold storage" and
make it one element in some mythical assemblage of unrelated traits
for which "Sakai" is too often a label. And, in fact "Sakai"
comes to mean .i ust what you want it to mean: if you are a missionary
the Sakai 'is an unsociable, simple, unclean creature who cannot count
above three: if you are a conservator of game the Sakai is not so
simple: he suddenly assumes a terrifying lethal Quality. If you are
a Malay who has his eye on a choice "dusun" planted UP by these
you teU the District Officer how the "Sakai" are "here to-day and
gone If you are a writer of fiction the is invari-
ably "cowering in his flimsy shelter scratching his lupus skin as he
grows old."
There is, however, one indisputable fact, namely the lack of
easily availahle systematic knowledge about the aborigines: and it has
not been possible therefore, for a cohtrent aboriginal policy to develop.
The first step then is to avoid reading too specific a meaning into the
term "Sakai" and to build up separate intensive studies of the rather
diverse patterns of culture and breed to be understood under that
term. An attempt is here made to present vital facts about the
Temiar Senoi, a hill people of the main range between Perak and
Kelantan .
PREVIOUS RECORDS.
rr II faut continuer, if ne faut pas recommencer."
Two works published in the years 1905 and 1906 placed the study
of the Pagan Tribes on a systematic basis: Dr. Rudolf Martin's book
l
was chiefly anthropological, whilst that of W. W. Skeat and Dr.
C. O. Blagden2 was a compilation of all that was known about the
ethnology, magico-religious beliefs and material culture of the variou:-3
tribes.
Both books contain exhaustive surveys of earlier accounts, so
that in the present insta nce I shall only trace the significant advances
in our knowledge of the Senoi tribes on the main range. It is worth
bearing in mind however that earlier explorers recognised only one
non-Malay aboriginal element in the 'Peninsula, and the tribes were
1 Die Inlandstamme der Malay ischen Halbinsel. verlag Gustav Fischer.
Jena, 1905. I .
2 Pagan Races of the Mala'll Pen;w.rn/(! . Sl<e!lt & .
P1'eVtOUS Records 5
described as differing merely in terms of the degree of intermixtm'e
between this single . aboriginal strain and the more recent Malay
intruders. Thus we have the" Pan-Negrito" theory of de Quatre-
fagesl, Vaughan Stevens, de la Croix and de Morgan: whilst Miklu-
cho-Maclay2 that the aboriginal element was Melanesian'
and he spoke of Melano-Malays and Malays. Clifford, however,
before 1894 had promulgated the idea of a separate wavy-haired
element, and from vocabularies he collected on the Plus and the Jelai
divided this element into two tribes, the more northerly of which he
called Tembe and the more southerly, the Senoi3. Skeat
4
as early
as 1902 distinguished three aboriginal elements woolly-haired
Negrito, lank-haired Jakun and wavy-hair-ed which last
designated the element along the main range described by Clifford.
In 1903, Annandale and Robinson
5
published the results of their
investigations among the Negritos and also the wavy-haired peof.)le
behind Temengor and in the Batang Padang; though
they did not suggest any solution of the racial affinities of the latter
element which they readily distinguished from the Negritos. Later
however Annanda1e
G
described them as " dwarf Mongolians" a 'most
interesting identification which was not to be developed until quite
recently.
It was left to Rudolf Martin
7
the great German doyen of physical
anthropology, to investigate scientifically this wavy-haired element
which he termed" Senoi ." He discounted Pater Schmidt'sS associa-
tion of them with certain tribes of Frnch Indo-China wh.ich had been
based largely evidenCE: at second-hand. He compares
thE-m rather With certalll Jungle tribes of southern India termed
"Pre-Dravidian" by Richards, and the Veddas of Ceylon and the
Toalas of Celebes which Sarasin
9
also maintained were evidence of a
Veddo.id subs tratum in South-eastern Asia. Virchow
10
though rather
tentatively, had also put forward this view.
Skeat and Blagdenll rather inclined to this Pre-Dravidian classi-
which linked the. S.enoi, whom they distinguished as Sakai ,
al.so With the more DraVidian -element among the Australian abori-
gllles. in the of comparative anthropology.
the S.enOi a processIOn of terminology (Pre-Dravidian,
DravI.do-Australoid, Proto-Australoid and Vedd-Australoid)
which empha,)Ised more and more strongly this affinity. Blagden
1 The Pigmies, de Quatrefages . Journ. R.A .S., S.B., Nos. 11 and 13
2 Ethn?lo!l,ical E xcursions . Journ. R.A.S., S.B., No.2. .
3 Sakal DUllects of the Malay Peninsula. J01lm. R.A.S., S .B., No. 24.
4 Joum. Royal Anth1'opologi cul Institute, vol. XXXII, 1902. "Wild Tribes
of the Malay Peninsula."
6 Fasciculi Malay enses. Pa rt I, Anthropology. London, 1903.
6 Malay Mail, December 22nd, 1904.
7 Die Inlandstamme der Malay ischen Halhinsel.. Jena 1905
8 Die Sprachen der Sakai und Semang auf Malukka, lh; Verhaltnis zu
den M?n-Khmer Sprachen. Bijdragcn tot de Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde van
N.-Indle, (1901).
9 Versuch einer Anthropolog';e der [nsel Celebes. Thiel II. F. & P. Sarasin.
10 Verhandlungen de" Be"liner Gesellschaft fur Anhropologie. XXvIII.
11 Pagan Races of the Mala.y Peninsula.
Journal of the F M.s. MuseumS
[VOL. xIx,
also demonstrated more clearly from linguistic evidence the. reality
of an aboriginal peninsular Malay element in the south WhICh pre
1 " I"
dated the historical intrusion of the more comp ex orang me ayu
or "Deutero-Malays" from Sumatra.
To the Northern and Central tribes of Senoi defined by Clifford.
Sk-eat and Blagden tentatively addl'd Southern (Besisi in Selangor
and Northern Negri Sembilan) and Eastern (on the Benom
massif in Pahang). They retained the earlier term "Sakai"
f(lr these wavy-haired tribes. Dr. Blagden compiled from many
sources a comparative vocabulary of all the aboriginal dialects and
while he developed1 the theme of their linguistic affinities with the
Mon-Khmer dialects, referring to the Austro-Asiatic branch of the
great Austric family of human languages he insisted on the evidence
for Indonesian elements in these dialects as well.
Wilkinson2 publi'shed a more complete vocabulary of Central Senoi
collected from a Gopeng aborigine. He also wrote a short account
of the pagan tribes, and this appears in slightly different form in
the beginning of his "History of the Peninsular Malays" and in a
chapter forming part of a compilation "Twentieth Century Impres-
sions of British Malaya."3 Wilkinson presents us with some inter-
esting information about the Northern Senoi.4 These. are
as differing in many respects from the other pagan trIbes; as hvmg
in long communal houses, going in for more intensive cultivati?n,
and being more formidable and hostile to strangers, and so bemg
feared by their n-eighbours. Annandale
5
had previously noted that
non-Negritc hill-men ("Po-KIo") in Ulu Temengor, now included by
Wilkinson as "Northern Senoi" were economically independent of the
Malays and did not hold friendly intercourse with them. Whatever
his SOUi'ces. Wilkinson's description of the Northern Senoi has stooo
the test of ' recent research.
Circumstances prevented Mr. I. H. N. Evans from intensive
study of anyone group over a sufficiently long period. A long series
of papers, most of which have been collected in his two books,S
chieflv add valuable new information on the beliefs and customs of
the Negrito tribes. He also paid several visits to the Central Senoi
but only on two expeditions did he touch the Northern Senoi. once
in Ulu Temengor
7
and once on the Korbu and in Ulu Kinta.
s
He
bears out Wilkinson's record of the formidability of this Northern
1 Also earlier in 1894, Early Indo-Chinese influence in the Malay Peninsula_
JOUrt!.. R.A.s., S.B., No. 27.
2 Wilkinson's A Vocabulary of Central Sakai: The Aboriginal Tribes :
History of the Peninsular Malays all in "Papers on Malay Subjects."
3 Edited by Arnold Wright. Lloyd's G. B. Publishing Co., 1908.
4 "Northern Sakai or Senoi"=Ple-Temiar Senoi=Orang Bukit (Malay).
"Central Saka'i or Senoi"=Semai Senoi=Orang or Mai Darat (Malay).
Wilkinson, like Skeat and Schebesta, retained the restricted use of the
term "SakaL"
6 Fasciculi Malayenses. Part 1. Anthropology, p. 24.
6 Religion, FolJv.lore and Custom in N. Borneo and the Malay Penilumla ..
Cambridge, 1923 and Papers on the Ethnology and Archaeology of the. Malay
Peninsula. Cambridge, 1927.
7 Upper Perak Aborigines. Jour1l . F.M.S. Museums, Vol. VI. 1915-1916.
8 Notes on the Sakai of the Korbu River and of the Ulu Kinta. Journ.
F M .S. Museu1ns, Vol. VII, 1917.
'
1936] Prevtous Records
hill tribe, but so much does he regard them as a hybrid tribe that he
calls them the "Negrito-Sakai" in Temengor. He repudiates the
orthodox Vedd-Australoid affinity of the Senoi and inclines rather to
the view put forward by Schmidt that these wavy-hair'2d people are
related racially to tribes in Southern French Indo-China.
Pater Schebesta spent two years in the peninsula and
was the first since Martin to have the opportunity to study one of
the aboriginal groups intensively. He d2voted most of his time to
the Negritosl but undertook two expeditions across the main range
among the wavy-haired hill people.
2
After deliberation, but in my
opinion for inadequate reasons, he allowed the locally indiscriminate
term "Sakai" to persist instead of "Senoi," adopted by Rudolf Martin,
and frequently though not consistently employed by Evans.
But he was the first to record the correct tribal name for the
"Central Sakai," namely Semai. The "Northern Sakai" he calls the
.. Ple-Temiar." But there is no' question of there being two triJ::.es,
"Ple" in Perak and "Temiar" in Kelantan. Actually "PIe" is the
Negrito term for these Northern hillmen and is adopted by the groups
adjacent to them, whilst "Temiar" or "Tem3r" is the Semai term for
them and is adopted in areas adjacent to them, as in Pahang, Ulu
Nenggiri and in the Ulu Kinta, Perak. Semai or "S-3man," moreover.
is the Temiar term which these southern hill people have adopted
from their northern neighbours. The tribal terminology is mutually
applicable.
On Schebesta's first expedition through Ple-Temiar territory, he
approached from the Negrito area he had h3en studying and his
route was up the Temengor, an area where Negrito contacts are
considerable. He spent a fortnight with a group near Kuala Jemheng
and collected materials foOr a grammatical sketch of their language:
he then crossed by the Lanweng into the VIu Panes, a tributary vf
the Yai, and so past Kuala Prias into t1:3 Nenggiri. His second
expedition was through the Semai groups of the Batang Padang in
Perak, and across into the Ulu Bertam, so following the Telom down-
stream t{) the Jelai. This route it will be noticed, once it crosses
into Pahang, follows just south of the Temiar boundary.
He devotes a few chapters of his second book "Orang Utan" of
which an English translation is not yet available, to the people he
met during these two expeditions. His account of the Ple-Temia,
sh-ews strong Negrito influence on beliefs and he describes them as
"a large mixed tribe." I do not think that Schebesta's investigation
among the Ple-Temiar or Semai can claim such solid authority as
his truly intensive work among the Negrito groups. As th3 map
accompanying this report shews, his path lay not through the bulk
of out-{)f-contact Temiar territory until he was into the Yai and his
fortnight of intensive study was spent in the Temengor; and it is
by no means admissible to regard a single journey in jungle hills of
this nature as supplying a representative picture of a1\ aspects of the
local breed and culture. For example, the total number of Temiar
I "Among the Forest Dwa,rfs of Malaya."
2 Orang Utan. P. P. Schebesta, Brockhaus. 1928 and a series of papers
published in Festschrift P. W. Schmidt. "Anthropos" and other periodicals.
journal of the F M.S. Museums [YOLo
measured by h;m is only thirty. Nevertheless, the account he gives
demonstrates the advantages of the methods of a trained obse:vei
over the unorganised impressions of the ordinary traveller, glven
the same brief period of contact with a people.
He was impressed, for with
of manv individuals he encountered \11 the hills; he mentIOns this tWice
in his 'published work, though he does not. define any. such type in
his analysis of aboriginal racial -8lements In the Penmsula.!
The researches of Schebesta first indicate that one aboriginal
strain (Australoid) which characterises the "Sakai" also occurs
occasionally among all groups. His definition of a "Pre-Mongoloid"
j vpe also among these wavy-haired people, and his Polynesian imprE-s-
stress the fact that in no group, not even all "Negrito" groups,
can culture and be two entities linked together to form a
discrete tribal unit.
My own intensive work, while it may impose a doubt on thl"
reality of the Mongoloid element in the terms in which Schebesta
casts it and while it may suggest a closer definition for the element
which impressed him as "Polynesian," confirms the main point of
Schebesta's heterogeneous analysis.
The Present InvestiJ!.ation.
My expeditions were of two kinds. It was first necessary to
study the pattern of the culture, and for this work I resided
for two periods of three and four months With smgle local groups
in the Ulu Brok Kelantan and the Ulu Plus, Perak. It was then
necessary to plot the distribution of settlements and of the various
physical and cultural traits .. For this purpose several
were made both west to east across the watershed, and from souta
to north along its slopes. Throughout the series of expedi-
tions no permanent staff of carriers was retained, the 02X-
pedition recruiting bearers at the local settlements, many of
whom had never worked for any motive beyond their own immediate
food-quest before. This greatly reduced expense, and it meant
meeting the inhabitants with no traditional prestige on which to
cling, but rather as man to man. The permanent field staff consisted
solely of a kamoong Malay as cook-boy and a Tcmiar as
messenger: whilst the Museum collector. Inche Yeop Ahmat,
accompanied me whenever fresh ground was broken in order to mak0
a contact traverse of the route taken.
The expedition camped in various ways according to the
circumstances; sometimES in patrol tents, sometimes under hastily
constructed lean-to shelters; sometimes under the lee of limestone rock
shelters; whilst for long- residence with any group a bamboo and atap
hut was built.
The cont.act map of the Perak-Kelantan watershed which
illustrates this paper could not have been made but for the goodwill
and co-operation of the Survey Department, who loaned instruments
:tnd from the first have suffered gladly an amateur at their craft.
I Anthropological measurements in Senwngand Sakai in Malaya by P. R.
Schebest a and V. Lehzelter (Anthropologie Prague VI, 1928) .
The Present investigation
The actual mapping depended on time and compass travtlses of the
routes taken, and bearings, hill-sketching, and clinometric readings
from convenient summits. This was carried out by Inche Yeop
Ahmat, Perak Museum Collector, who was formerly in the Topo-
graphical Surveys.
The map has been built up mainly through the spare-time efforts
of Captain G. H. Sworder of the Survey Department, who
throughout coached the Collector and gave every encouragement. for
the work. It is certain that but for the correlations Captain Swordcr
worked out with earlier bearings, many of them thirty years old, the
map would not have attained the coherence it possesses. It could
not, however, have been produced at all had not the Surveyor-General,
agreed to have it mounted and printed at the Map Office,
Kuala Lumpur.
Much of the territory of the PleTemiar lies outside Perak.
Throughout the expeditions the Governments of Kelantan and Pahang
have done everything in their power to help me. It would be difficult
to express sufficient gratitude to those friends, officials and unofficials,
on both sides of the range whose houses were the first I reached after
crossing the watershed ..
Many unnecessary hardships were added to the expeditions by thl!
propaganda of a very few irresponsible Malays who resented the
presence of somebody who wanted to see the aborigines at first hand.
Twice misrepresentations of this sort, which reached groups not yet
known to me, nearly caused disaster. Such incidents however were
more than compensated for by the co-operation of the Government
penghulus; and the untiring loyalty of my own Malay field staff.
Th'lse .vho remain with me have seen seven to eight months in the
jungle each year over a period of four and a half years.
10 journal 0/ the F.M.S. Museums
PART II.
OUTLINE OF THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE
PERAK-KELANTAN WATERSHED.
[VOL. XIX,
The amazing developments during the last quarter of a century
in Malaya have left few areas which may still be regarded as
unexplored. During the last three years, it has been my privilege to
traverse in many directions, and also to reside in one of the few
remaining blanks on the map. The story of the pioneer discoveries
in Malaya is described by Sir Hugh Clifford in one of his most .
absorbing books" Further India." But it was Sir Hugh Clifford who
on another occasion referred to the untouched aboriginal block of
Malayan territory which more or less was centred on the main range
of the Peninsula, though it extended in the east to include the Tahan
range and in the south the Benom range. To-day we find that the
Gap road and its branches has cut across to Kuala Lipis in the
south: the East Coast Railway now blazes a steel trail between the
middle part of the main range and Gunong Tahan; whilst just to the
south of the heart of the main range, the Batang Padang road cuts
half across the mountains to reach the vortex of Cameron Highlands.
Yet .we may note that the northern half of Clifford's "Aboriginal
Malaya," that which lies between Cameron Highlands and Gunong
Noring, has remained undisturbed to this day. Small roads, like the
roads to Lasah and Jalong from Sungei Siput, have, it is true, touched
the fringes of this country on the west, but otherwise we face a
territory of jungle hills nearly the size of the state of Selangor.
This territory corresponds with the distribution of an aboriginal
tribe called the PIe-Temiar Senoi: from Cameron Highlands south to
the boundary of Negri Sembilan live their cousins the Semai SenoL
On the west the "one inch to one mile" Topo-Survey maps "frame"
the Divide up as far north as the latitude of Grik: on the east the
remoteness of Ulu Kelantan has not yet been surveyed on this scale.
Four expeditions have left us some information about the
northern half of the main range. In 1888, Mr. C. F. Bozzolo, then
Collector of the District of Upper Perak, followed up the Plus and
then its tributary the lVIenlik and so got across into the DIu Betis.
In 1905, Mr. J. N. Sheffield took a Survey party up the Plus as far as
the Kernam, whence he struck into the DIu Piah and so after arduous
work succeeded in placing a survey beacon on Gunong Grah and
taking readings from the summit. Later, Major W. A. D. Edwards
reached Gunong Noring in the Ulu Sengoh. In 1923, Pater Schebesta,
the ethnologist, followed up the Temengor and struck across from
one of its tributaries to reach the mouth of the Prias in Kelantan.
During his years in Upper Perak, Captain Berkeley, I.S.0., had
frequent occasion to visit the DIu Temengor and the Piah valleys.
Still earlier than this period, pioneers had penetrated up the rivers
of the western slopes, but it must be remembered that their "ulu"
would now be regarded as our "kuala" and the real sources of the
rivers were correspondingly remote. Perhaps the best indication of
Journ. F. M. S. Mus. - Vol. XIX.
The Ulu Jindera. Kelantan.
from the Perak watershed.
A highland stream on the
PerakKelantan watershed.
Cliffs beside the Lower
Nenggiri. Kelantan.
A calm stretch of the
Beti s, Kelantan.
Plate I.
1936j An Outltne 0/ the ?erak-Kelantan watershed 11
this fact is that on the map published by St. Pol Lias in his amusing
book U Perak et les Orang Sakey," Ipoh (in very small letters) is
described as "village, Sakey ou Malaise." To-day of course, it is in the
Kinta region that development.reaches nearest to the Kelantan divide,
a:1d the lofty peak of Gunong Riam (Korbu) dominates the main
street of the town.
The French ethnologist de Morgan and Dr. Rudolf Martin;
Mr. F. W. Knocker, formerly of the Perak Museum, and of course
Sir Hugh Clifford, Sir W. E. Maxwell, Mr. Deane and Mr. H. W. C.
Leech also penetrated some way up the Plus and other tributaries 011
the western side.
In the last few years prospectors and others must also have
tracke_d up several rivers of the divide for some part of their length
especially on the western side. In such cases the Temiar have always
remembered to what point those travellers penetrated, and in other
quarters they said I was the first white man they had seen.
Circumstances have enabled the present writer to follow up most
of the rivers to their sources and to cross the main range five times
from West to East Coast Railway, thereby disclosing the Perak
Kelantan divide in a perspective which was not possible before. And
it was necessary to view the region as a whole in order to obtain a
just appreciation of the relativity of man and his environment.
The Main Features of the Territory and the Routes of the
Expeditions.
The observations of the surveyor!' who reached Noring and Grah,
and of course Riam, with readings taken from outlying ranges such
as Ijau, Bubu, Kledang and Tahan, give us some idea of the direction
of the main range, and reveal, though without popular recognition,
a series of sustained heights which are remarkable for Malaya. It
is almost certain now that no peak tops Gunong Tahan, yet Riam and
three other peaks come within a hundred feet of it, and there are at
least sixteen peaks of over 6,000 feeL
Although it is unlikely that undulating land of such continuous
extent as we have in the Ulu Telom will be discovered on the Perak
Kelantan divide, yet I have, in the course of my expeditions, come
across many smaller areas some of which might prove sufficiently
adjacent to one another to form other highland areas; and certainly
Cameron Highlands form only the southern end of these sustained
heights, separated from the northern ones by the knife-edge of Yong
Blar.
The higher peaks are almost dways shrouded in mist. The
heights around Gunong Grah, although lower than the more isolated
Gunong Korbu, being so close that the mist practically never lifts from
all parts of this mass simultaneously; it lies, moreover, not only
around the summits but extends to lower altitudes than is the case in
the other mountain groups.
12
Journal 0/ the F.M.S. Museums tVor.. XIX,
The sustained character of the heights along the divide give a
special character to the climate, and hence the flora. The stunted
trees weep with tangles of moss, which is a foot deep around their
base and hangs in decorative festoons from tree to tree. I was
reminded of the spectrous low trees on the higher slopes of Mount
Lompobatang, the extinct crater about 11,000 fe'8t high, which domi-
nates South Celebes. A continuous drizzle at these altitudes swells
the streams into mountain torrents and the high rainfall is responsible
for innumerable ravines and countle:'lS streams. The temperature can
be comparatively very low, and in the neighbourhood of Gunong Grah
during a halt on the Kelantan boundary at midday, fires were neces-
sary to promote suffic:ent warmth.
Five rivers drain the western slopes of the range, and run down
into the Perak river: the Sengoh, thE: Temengor, the Piah, the Plus
and the Kinta. Whilst on the east the Jindera, the Prias, the Betis
and the Brok join the Sungai Nenggiri, Kelantan.
The headwaters of all the riverfl drop over falls which are not
so much f.pmarkable for their height as for the long series of step,;
over which they cascade. The falls of. the Betis, called Lata Gajah,
are the most impressive that I found: though for sheer beauty
the falls of the Plus which thunder into a vast kind of "devil's
punchbowl" to join the Yum, almost surpass them.
When the streams descend to about four thousand feet they
generally How through a series of alluvial flats, separated at succeed-
ing le\'els by waterfalls. As one followed up a river, the steep and
arduous scramble up the side of falls was nearly always rewarded by
a pleasant walk through a flat valley. In some of these alluvial flats,
which will be described when the Various river valleys are treated
separately, river rejuvenation seems to have taken place, for now the
stream moves swiftly on a straight course, often cutting deeply into
the sandy soil deposited on an earlier meandering course, thus leaving
a flat shelf on either side. Some of these fiat valleys are of consider-
able extent, especially the Talong valley in DIu Sengoh just south of
Noring, and their significance for the population of these mountains
will emerge later.
When the rivers have descended to about two thousand feet
they become navigable by bamboo rafts, though formidable
rapids have to be negotiated at intervals, and also they are often
blocked at narrow stretches by tree logs washed down when the river
was in spate. Just below thousand foot level-sometimes as on
the Brok and the Sengoh, a considerable distance above the far Malay
kampongs-the furthest point upstream reachable by dugout boats is
usually situated. But often the most formidable rapids are found
less than a mile from these peaceful stretches of the river. as for
instance on the Brok, (Jeram Gaiah), the Piah, (Jeram Berhala), and
the Temengor, (Jeram Belanga).
1936] An Outline of the Perak-Kelantan 'Watershed
13
rrom the raftable limit downwards the bigger jungle begins and
fine trunks of merbau, meranti and tualang may be seen the
river. Above this point t.he timber is smaller and very inaccessible
from a commercial point of view. Having looked across the jungle
from summits at numerous pOints along the Perak-Kelantan boundary,
I was struck by the extenSIve areas of undisturbed virgin jungle.
Chronicle of Expeditions.
For the of the demographic survey, I crossed the
watershed on five main expeditions. The first two started from
Lasah, at the end of the Plus road from Sungai Siput. I marched up
the P.lus as far as Kuala Yum, followed one of its small tributaries
near Its source to int? the Ulu Ber which led me to the Sungai
I had during my first of intensive study of
Temiar culture III the Ulu Telom and Ulu Brok reached Kuala Ber
from the Ulu Mering, and indeed ha(l traced Brok as far up as
Kuala Blatop climbing back into the Ulu Telom near Blue Valley
(Ulu Ledlad) by a new pass not formerly used by the Temiar
owmg to the graves of several chiefs in the Ledlad. Coming from
the Plus on this occasion I rafted down the Brok as far as Kuala Betis
and :eached Gua Musang on the East Coast Railway six weeks after
Sungai Siput. Of this time, twelve days were spent in
marchmg and three days in rafting.
Then came three expeditions covering the Perak side of the
watershed, one from Ulu Korbu into the Ulu Plus at Kuala Mu and
then across Gunong Lalang into Ulu Yum again, and so down the
Plus to Lasah; a second from Kuala Temor on the Plus across into
the Piah valley and up into the Vlu Jemheng and down the
Temengor and the Perak River to Grik; and a third from Grik into
the Ulu Ringat and up the Temengor into the Piah val!'2Y, and so
down to the Perak River to Kenering.
In 1934 wei started from Lasah on my second expedition across
into Kelantan, this time taking a line further north by foIlowinO' the
Temor its source and so into Ulu Piah, finding the
of the Betts .lust by Gunong Grah. On this occasion when I arrived
after twelve marching dayg and tWG raftillg days at Kuala Betis I
rafted on down th8 Nenggiri, stopping at Kuala Jindera, and so reached
Bert.am, a station on the East Coast Railway-after two days of
rafting. One short expedition from Jalong on the Korbu into th'e DIu
Plus at Kuala Mu, lead me up the Mu to find the sources of the Brok
just below Yong Blar and so on up the Blatop to Cameron Highlands.
In April 1935, on my return from home heave, I followed the Kinta
up to Kuala Penoh and so reached the Telom by the DIu Penoh and
the DIu Terla. Another short journey from Grik to Kenering down
the Perak River enabled me to meet some PIe groups and neighbouring
Lanoh Negritos on the Lower Dalli.
On August 8th, 1935, I reached Kampong Temengor once again
from Grik, intending to get into touch with the most northerly hybrid
1 Mr. K. R. Stewart accompanied me on this expedition.
14 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums [VOl . XIX,
groups of Ple-Temiar, and so find the boundary between this hill tribe
and the Jahai Negritos. Striking the Sara, a tributary of the Sengoh,
wei turned north up thE:: Cherendong and so over a pass at 4,700 feet
from which we descended into a tributary of the Sengoh. We dropped
down into Kelantan to find the sourc:a of the Mpian, a large tributary
of the Jindera, which we followed down to a point navigable for rafts
(Kuala Perlong) but had to strike east again over a range of mountains
into the Ulu Jindera which we reached at Kuala Re!eng. From this
point we rafted into the Nenggiri again and so came out once more at
Rertam, eighteen days after leaving Grik, ten of which were spent in
marching and three in rafting.
On September 19th, 1935 I left Gua Musang for Kuala Betis and
rafted down to Kuala Yai, and so went up the last big tributary of
the Nenggiri still remaining to be visited by me.
2
From Kuala Prias
I followed north up the Prias for a day and then back to the Yai,
which was traced to its source, past Kuala Panes, opposite the source
of the Temengor. The reconnaissance was thus linked up again at
Kuala Jemheng with former routes
a
.
The. River Valleys.
The Plus.
The Plus becomes a peaceful and oft-travelled waterway after its
meeting with the Korbu, and soon wends its way between Malay
kampongs to meet the Perak River a few miles north of Kuala
Kangsar. It is from Kuala Korbu uluwards that the aboriginal
territory proper begins, though streams rising to the north-west of
Lasah must also be included. This area is defined clearly on the
accompanying map, upon which all the aboriginal settlements have
been plotted. There are two important strategic points above Kuala
Korbu, from the point of view of topography and hence distribution.
Kua.la Temor is the limit of perahu or sampan navigation and the
Temor itself is one of the larger tributaries of the Plus with several
hill groups living in its valleys. It also provides with its northern
streams the most accessible p a s s a g ~ into the Piah valley and thence
(via Sulieh and the Jemheng) to the valley of the Temengor.
A path was formerly made along this route joining Lasah and
Temengor, but I found in 1932 when I had sev'8ral occasions to u ~ e it,
that most sections of it had been overgrown. Another aboriginal
track follows up the Temor to reacn the delectable Ulu Piah, which
is isolated from the middle Piah,-served by the former route,-by
continuous waterfalls and precipitous ravines. The Ulu Temor
contains some very attractive J\at valleys one of which, though its
elevation was only about 2,500 we traversed for over a mile without
finding rising ground. Its extent is perhaps borne out by the fact
that though a long series of falls separate its peaceful reaches from
raft.able stretches of the lower river, yet bamboo rafts were seen
being punted along it.
I MI'. R. B. Black, M.e. s., accompanied me on this expedition.
2 Pater Schebesta had struck the Yai coming down the Panes from Ulu
Temengor.
3 Since this was \vritten a fifth expedition climbed back into Perak by the
Ulu Prias and 30 down the Kenyer into the Temengor.
journ. F. M. S. Mos. - Vol. XIX.
Camp at Kuafa Yai, Kef"nt .. n.
Shooting the rapids.
Plate II
Expedition on the march
up the Sara, Perak.
Railing on the Plus, Perak.
1936] An Outline of the Pera!c-Kelantan watershed 15
Kuala I.e.gap is the next strategic point upstream. This is the
limit above which rafting becomes impossible, though even between
it and Kuala Temor, the jerams Timah and Kerabut, prevent
undisturbed passage. Kuala Legap is therefure the capital, as it were,
of the upper pfus: the river here wends its way slowly between low
gradual slopes with many fiats on them, and on one of these a large
settlement comprising twenty families have their long house, and
a large plantation. In Legap. the Temiar from the furthest sources of
the Plus, are continually gathering: it is a recognised rendez-vous and
of great importance therefore to the administration of the area, since
one night on the way, at Kuala Temor, will bring any officer who
forewarns into touch with all the headmen of the Plus valley, for the
headwaters of the Plus open up like the fingers of an outstretched
hand with the tips pressed against the Kelantan divide.
The Legap, which rises on the slopes of Gunong Chingkeh is the
junction of two routes; one down into the PerIop, thence to the Korbu
and Jalong, and another up and across a large ridge to Kuala MH.
The Temiar wash tin just above Legap at Rengka. A few miles
upstream from Legap the Plus divides off from the Yum, a stream
from the north which actually rivals the Plus in size. Kuala Yum is
very beautiful; from just below it the Plus may be seen falling in
almost vertical steps in numerous cascades which just fail to be one
mighty fall of water well over a hundred feet in heig-ht. The
Yum also runs down precipitously, but upstream a few miles
at Kuala Pend uk, it is found to glide slowly over a series of alluvial
fiats, divided by precipitous stretches, and in these flats, and up the
Menlik which leads into the Ulu Piah and has its source opposite the
Jumpes and the Chular tributaries of the Betis, Kelantan, there are
a number of flourishing settlements: also one high on the slopes of
Gunong Lalang. The Yum valley runs like an index finger into
Kelantan, and its UPPH reaches flow through flat hig-hland areas
(as seen from Gunong- Lalang and the Ulu Panas, during the first
passage into Kelantan).
The next centre up the Plus proper ':which, after Kuala Yum
turns almost a hairpin bend until it is running from south to north)
is Kuala Mu. The junction of the Mu with the Plus takes place on
another fine area of gradual slopes. and is the site of a flourishing
settlement. So far to the sl)!.!th is Kuala Mu, that only a night on the
way, will bring one over the steep slopes of Gunong Chingkeh into
Jalong on the Korhu. Just below Kuala Mil, at Bakau on the Teras,
washing for tin is carried on.
There is no doubt that the Mu i ~ much bigger than the parent
stream when they meet. It follows a long and tortuous course from
the Kelalltan boundary, and there is an aboriginal track which will
take you into the Ulu Brok, the Sungei Nenggiri. Kelantan within
,,"each of lofty Yang Blar and lJlu Kinta. There are several
large areas in the Vlu Mu; including one (called for mythical reasons
"ben dang raja") which contains a thriving settlement. It is so flat
as to be boggy in some places.
16 JouriuLl of the F .M.s. Museums [VOL. XIX.
From Kuala Mu, the Plus, by now a small stream can be followed
up to (he Kelantan boundary in a .few hours. It runs .through
undulating hills, and at its source IS the only gap In the mal!1 range
of Noring, which provides a "pass" of great .value
when communications between Kelantan and Perak are m questIOn.
We now return to follow the Plus' largest tributary, the Korbu,
whose drainage area may be likened to an elongated trough. The
Korbu upstream to Jalong is a beaten and the scene of
elephant patrol but in the large valley Just upstream (Chabang) IS
situated one of the largest and most sophisticated Temiar groups,
from which the successful elephant patrol is recruited. These men
are adept "gembalas,"or elephant drivers, and have a.
plantation of most foodstuffs suitable for dry ThIS lme
of border forms a kind of aboriginal At
road-head is met again and there is a Chinese commumty of timber
cutters. Not far from Kuala Korbu is the flat valley of the Perlop.
Above Jalong, the Korbu is already a swift mountain
from Kuala Larek upst.ream it runs through narrow preCIpItous
ravin-es, and it is only when we climb above Kuala Kuah. that
meet peaceful slow moving waters. The Korbu curves and .ItS
source is close to the Ulu Mu and the headwaters of the Kinta, whIch
streams cut it off from the Kelantan boundary.
The Kuah curves round the south of Gunong Chingkeh, from
whose slopes, and from the lofty heights near Gunong R.iam on. its
other flank, it receives a number of swift streams. There IS a
hill 'long house' perched on a narrow ridge in from which
high peaks with sharpened summits may be seen rIsmg to south,
though the Korbu main peak is screened by closer mountams aln:ost
as high as itself. There is howeVer a tolerably easy. route over mto
the Ulu Mu which thus connects with the Ulu Nenggm, Kelantan, and,
further the DIu Telom. And there is actually much intercourse
between that' part of Temiar Pahang and Jalong, which sets the seal
on Jalong's significance as the test centre from which propaganda
may reach the furthest fields and serve a sphere which transcends
even the Ulu Plus; for we have alre&dy noted. that the sourC2 of the
Plus itself and the Mu are most rapidly reached from Jalong over the
Chingkeh !Jloc.
The Piah.
The Pia h rises under Gunong Grah in a series of headwaters
which contain several open valleys with gradual slopes, formed by
the accumulation of aU uvial flats. Just below Kuala Pi-es, I found
some pleasant smooth-featured country at about thr.ee five
hundred feet altitude (Kalong). Eut between thIS saucer and
Kuala Sulieh which I reached twice on my way to and from the
Temengor the Piah rushes headlong down impassable ravines. A
long day'S' march downstream from Kuala Sulieh .takes one Kuala
Puoi from which stream the Piah is raftable, but Just before It wends
peacefully into the Perak River. it goes through a long gorge aptly
named the "Jeram 13erhala," below which rafts may have to be
1936]
An Outline of the Perak-Kelantan watershed
17
constructed anew. The Piah valley is never wide, and the Puoi is the
only tributary of any size below Kuala Sulieh.
The Temen[lor.
The like the Jind.era, flows north and south, more 01'
less pa:allel WIth the general lme of the main range, unlike the
other rIvers of the watershed. It first becomes a considerable and
raftable river at Kuala Jemheg'N; the Jemheg'N, being almost as
large as the Temengor when they meet. The Temengor itself rises
on the slopes of Gunang .Grah beside the source of the Yai, for it
cur.ves round east of the hIgher mountains (Bieh and Sepat) formerly
belIeved to be the watershed. I have been both up and down the
Jemheg'N which Jehds into the habitable middle Piah valley, and we
traced the source of the Temengor itself climbing back from Kelantan
up the DIu Yai. After Kuala Jemheg'N there is one bad rapid the
" Jeram. Belanga,"' and the further north the Temengor flow; the
fu!ther moves from the watershed so that it receives two largish
trIbutanes, the Kenyer and the Kertei before it reaches the isolated
Patani settlement of Kampong Temengor. .
The Sara and Ulu Sengoh.
We struck down into the Sara after two days march from
Kampong Temengor i!1 a direction roughly north-east first following
the and Re.ndah and camped at Kuala Heng.' At this point
the Sara IS not naVigable for rafts, but it is particularly full of fish.
A: half day's march up the Sara, which revealed fine flat land on either
SIde, took us to Kuala Cherendong. Here we left the Sara itself
which rises, so we were told, south below Gunong Karang (7 120 feet
and hitherto unnamed on the map of Malaya, thouO'h it is the fifth
higbest peak in the peninsula), and followed up the Cherendong in an
east-north-easterly direction camping- at the foot of a range which
took us a long day's strenuous climbing before we reached the pass
at 4,700 feet. We descended towardfl nightfall, stumbling across the'
tracks of elephant (which the PIe said were very numerous in the
DIu Sengoh, as also tiger and other game further downstream) to
find ourselves in a long flat valley vI about 4,000 feet altitude which
we were astonished to find was the Talong, another tributary of the
Sengoh, wruch apparently rises far south and flows parallel with the
edge of the watershed for a number of miles. An hour's walk that
evening, and two hours of easy walking the next morning gave
us neither the downstream nor upstream limits of this fine land.
The stream and its tributaries glided along without a murmur over
sand, with patches of green water plants here and there, its windings
suggesting some breadth to the valley as well as length. Regretfully
we left the Talong and only a five minutes scramble UP a low slope
gave way to a descent on the other side. Only when I saw a little
brook running- swiftly did I realise, and receive confirmation. that we
had struck the source of the Mpian, a tributary of the Jindera, and
were in Kelantan. S(luth of NOlin:!. it appears, there is a kind of
elevated elongated "saucer" of land with the barest rim, on the east
side of which the land falls steeply away to the ra-vinei! and torrents
Of mu Mpian,
18
Journal of the F.M.S. Museums
[VOL. XIX,
The Ulu Nenggiri, Kelantan.
There is little doubt in my mind that' Nenggiri' it5 wor?
negeri' nasalised in the manner so habitual with the Se.no!.
Above Kuala Betis it is called by them the Brok' (MalaYlsed
Berong) and they assured me that it was the .. ibu Nengen
Kelantan, itu-Iah." The Nenggiri is a far larger river the. Galas
at their junction and Malays about there refer .to their meetmg
.. Kuala Sungei." The naming of the Kelantan rivers as elsewhere m
this country, is just what would fcllow from a people who spread
inland from the sea. It seems as if the Malays of Ulu Kelantan have
an origin different from those on the alluvial plain near the. sea.
They are the descendants of Moslemised Temiar, artd Malay
from the Jelai district in Pahang. The descendants of Chfford s
To'Gajah, one of the PHhang rebels, are living the ,ab?ve
Kuala Betis. It is still possible to exemplify habit, of mtI ud:n
g
Malay of misnaming rivers: one of the bigger o.f
Nenggiri is called by the local Malays" the Prias" and Its biggest
tributary the Yai. But the TemiaI" inhabitants of these
regard the Yai as the parent stream; and indeed it is the bigger at
their junction. ,
The Nenggiri is still from its source to its mouth a predommantly
aboriginal river. The "orang MiHayu" along its total Iength do !lot
reach a thousand souls, and most of these are kin of the Temlar,
who reach anything from four to five thousand m number.
The Brok.
The parent stream. called the Brok by the even as far
down as Kuala Jindera, rises just opposite the Ulu .K
mta
from the
eastern slopes of Yong Blar, not morc than twelve. miles as the crow
flies from Ipoh. Just before it meets the Galas It flows the
railway bridge near Bertam station. Like the parent Its
main tributaries all flow down eastwards from mam and
downstream from Kuala Betis, it does not dram an,Y consl.derable
t 'butarv from its right bank. It is the Brok which drams the
shield-like' enclave' between Perak and Pahang just from
Cameron Highlands. It receives the Terisuk and the Rengll. from
the north just under the southern headwaters of the (Sungel Mu).
and the Plaur, the Tauu and the Blatop from the rIm of
Highlands. All theSle rivers are like mountain torrents, rushmg down
steep ravines except at one or two points such as below Kuala Ledlad
on the Blatop, and the Brok itself above Kuala Blatop. But frO!Il
Kuala Blatop down to abouf three miles above Ber. Brok
sweeps down between steep- and rocky hill sides Which admit of no
track at all.
The Ber is the Brok's biggest , trihl!-tary. Its source lies
opposite the central headwaters of _ Plus, and after
swiftly down the steep eastern slopeS.' _ot Yong Yap. on which vast
landslides are visible from the north, it glides leisurely
down through fine wooded country to join the Brok which I? also
begiiming to repent of its rapid course and now has become naVigable
fQr raftg, -
1936] An Outline 0/ the Perak-Ketantan watershed 19
Kuala Ber lies in a region of numerous hot springs, great scars
of rock open to the sun, The hot springs begin two miles up the Ber
and persist for about a mile and a half up the Brok. Either bank is
dotted with them until well below Kuala Mering. The Mering itself
which rises opposite the Rening and the Misong in Ulu Telom is a
lovely river which shortly after leaving the low watershed glides
crystal-clear over golden sand set with rocks, from under which the
traveller sets shoals of fish darting to find new cover. The hot springs
begin about five miles up the Mering, and there must be a fault
running right by the Misong and so to the constellation of them
around the Ulu Tekal and Ulu Jelai Kechil in Pahang.
These hotsprings are the focus of game of all kinds, and I have
found deer, kijang, elephant, seladang and wild pig more plentiful
here than anywhere else on both slopes of the main range north-
wards, in spite of the proximity of the Temiar.
A day's rafting from Kuala Ber brings one to a great black gorge
called Jeram Gajah which is about a quarter of a mile in length.
After the torment of these rapids the Brok meanders peacefully
between low hills and the first Malay settlements are passed side by
side with the Temiar.
The Betis.
The Betis rises just under the peak of Gunong Grah opposite the
Ulu Piah from which river I climbed into its source. Just above Kuala
Jumpes, the Betis .flows for miles through undulating land below
four thousand feet altitude. About two miles above Kuala Telour,
it descends swiftly between steep hill sides and its precipitous course
ends about a mile below, with a beautiful fall, called Lata Gajah,
where the Betis, by now a considerable volume of water, drops over a
shelf for about eighty feet and then drops again in a series of smaller
falls. There are several hotsprings at the very head of these falls,
and evidence of plenty of game.
Below Lata Gajah, the Betis takes a slower and more circuitous
course all the while receiving few streams of note on its north bank
nor on its south, until the Enchin which has barely finished its abrupt
descent from the hills when its waters pour into the Betis. A long
bend on the river brings one to the mouth of the largest tributary,
the Perlob, on which most of the Temiar population is settled. The
Perlob has its source just opposite the Yum (Ulu Plus). Large herds
of elephant3 seem quite recently to have invaded the Perlob valley
and are devastating the crops of the Temiar.l
Below Kuala Perlob
2
, the Betis runs by the side of abrupt walls
of dolomitic formation, which stand out of the jungle like massive
fortresses.
From Kuala Betis, the Nenggiri flows northwards as far as Kuala
Jindera, dropping barely ten feet on the way and few rapids break
its even course. Near Kuala Peralong, a stream of no great size, there
are several hotsprings near its banks and game tracks become
plentiful again.
-------_._-
1 There is reason to believe that these new herds, which since this was
written have invaded the Prias, are part of the herds which, until the Elephant
Patrol disturbed them, used to do much damage on the Lower Plus.
2 or Perolah.
iou?'nai of the F.M.S. Mus eums ['VOL. XIX,
The PriM. .
About :.: ight miles aLove Kuala Jindera, the Prias joins the Betis.
This river is unlike the other big trilutaries of the Nenggiri, in that
the hills do not stand back from its hanks for the last. stretch above
its mouth.
From Kuala Yai to the mouth, it flows at great pace on a steady
descent. It risEs just south of Gunong Karang. It is a beautiful
rivEt', its course being marked by a series of rocky pools which arc
full of fish , klah and seberau being especially plentiful. The Yai and
its tributary, the rise near Ulu Temengor. The Ulu Yai runs
through a large area of flattish land of about 4,000 f(let above
sea level.
The Jindera (Tem:a?' "JendTol") .
The Jindera is the last great tributary of the N enggiri. Its
source is on the southern slopes of Gunong Noring opposite the Ulu
Sengoh . . We climbed into the source of its largest tributary, the
Mpian, which rises under the rim of the high plateau of the Talong.
It rushes precipitously down in narrow ravines as does its other
headwater, the Bertak, which seen from the ridge between the two
appears to be one vast series of fall s from first to last; th:! power in
. those waters must be considerable. Below Kuala Bertak, the Mpian
slows' down in a more open and along these beautiful
stretches, it is possible to raft. At Kuala Perlong we had, however,
to turn aside and c1imh eastwards over a high ridge into the Jindera.
The Jindera, where we carne upon it at Kuala Releng, was already
a considerahle stream and, from a mile or two above, its waters were
navigable for rafb;. The Jindera soon passes into an open landscape
set with great dolomitic pinnacles, whose cliffs make the views along
this river very lovely. The scenery becomes very stern in the rocky
trough in' which the Mpian joins it, whose formerly peaceful waters
have gathel'ed speed in a final fling before pouring themselves into the
Jindera. From Kuala Mpian till its mouth, the Jindera flows through
low land, t hough in several places it carves its way under the
dolomitic cliffs.
From Kuala Jindera, the Nenggiri turns sharply eastwards.
After Kuala Uias, it turns south round the steeps of Gunong Berangkat
and just after this passes close to the great rock of Keldung, which
the Tem..iar recognise as the boundary stone of their country. From
Kuala Betis to below Gunong Berangkat there are no Malay settle.
ments, but now a few isolated houses are found again. The stretch of
the Nenggiri about Ku,la Lah is studded once again with the rugged
dolomiti c cliffs (loose\) termed "limestone") which break the even
tone of the greer. jung!e wall on either bank. One of these Batu
Bayan, on the right bank is very striking, a long cave being rent about
two hundred feet up in the cliff.
But if this is the country of the Malays, it is also, as on the
Perak side. the beginning of the beat of the Negrito nomads for
bands of the Menri tribe move around in the Ulu Lah and ' U!n
Bertam and also on the lower Galas, in which river, below the railway
at Bertam. the greater waters of the Nenggiri attain anonymity.
JOV( II . f . Jrrwt . S. M",,- - Vol . ll".
W I
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tlftVEAL!J6ICAL ANALYSIS <JF A (YflICAL TEMIAR UTfN(jE!J rAMILY
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1936]
Breed and Culture
21
THE BREED AND TURE OF THE TEMIAR SENO!.
SOCIAL ORGANISATION.
. unit of Temiar Society is the .. extended family" which
inhabIts. a and works a ladangl. It is made up of
several mdividual famIlIes which are related to each in a
special way. The Temiar extended family is composed of a man and
some of hIS younger brothers and sist-ers, together with their mates
and families, in common occupation of a dwelling. It must be realised
t.hat in the process of descent several generations may
stIli be hvmg, and that uncles and aunts of these brethren will have
raised also. Family grouping is intermediate, neither patri-
local nor matnlocal residence being- binding on marriage: hence some
younger brothers may live with tht:irwife's group, whilst some of
the sisters may remain, their husbands joining them. Custom in
favour of the eldest son in each generation assuming leadership within
each household and there is increasing 'selection of the eldest f10n as
each generation succeeds. Continuity is thereby presened in the>
process of descent.
The institution of the human families comuosing- extended
households remains firm, and the ties which bind husband to wife
and children to parents are never oermanentlv weakened bv the
common factor in the extemled fl1milv. Each family consists of a
man and his wife or wives, with their unmarried children: the familiC:!s
occupy their own compartments and their own hearths around the
central floor. The extended household may indeed be regarded <lS a
small villag-e, the central floor being the street and the separate
compartrr:ents, the houses.
Society is a familv affair for the Temiar. Everybody is
addressed' or referred fo by his appropriate kinship term. The
system of relationshios being" classificatorv," terms such
as "father" and "sister" refer to groups of relatives. and those
too remote to be included in our European svstem are specified ami
classed with close blood-kin. Differential treatment ann. certain
reciprocal duties exist between kin applying the same relationshin
term to each other. These classed under the saIY'e term are "sodal
equivalents" as far as performance of custom and ritual surrounding-
the of birth, marriage and the like are concerned. Semantic
recognition of the real parents and blood-brethern is however always
present. .
As will be noted when marriage customs are it is not
binding on a young man. either to reside permanently with his own
people nor with his wife's: generally a young couple move from one
group to the other. Kinship organisation is not localised: it involves
grouns on the Neng-giri, the Telom. the Plus .. the Korbu and the Kinta:
a. Pahang Temiar finds dose relatives in the Korbu in Perak, and in
the Betis in Kelantan.
Everv extended household. on the other hand. a un;t in a stil!
wider grouping, which is ot several such households; this
wider grouping is called the and the part plaved bv the
kindred in law, and its identification from the economic point of view,
with a territory of land called the" saka" is deS1lt with I_ater. __ _
1 A Malay word meaning a jungle clearing for dry cultiyation.
22 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums [VOL. XIX,
The prohibited degrees of relationship within which mating may
not occur are defined by the ancestral law of Incest: "those who
have drunk the same milk may not sleep together." Even cousins
are debarred, and eligible mates are not found within the extended
household, except in certain cases his relatives may follow a
man who has married into another household and thus provide
mates for other members of tl:e hous-ehold.
Preliminary bargaining between the two groups represented by
the lovers may be complicated: yet there is no ceremony to initiate
matrimony. Courtship involves premarital intercourse, but contented .
co-habitation is the seal of marriage. Temiar are no less faithful
than most to the marriage pact: unions are contracted young and are
soon cemented by the breeding of several children who form a tie
that is rarely severed. Either husband or wife may find temporary
bed-mates, but these do not affect the union. A younger brother
will often sleep with his elder brother's wife in the latter's absence.
Whilst on a journey it. is permitted for a man to spend the night
with any female relative of hi"! wife. Such accommodations usually
become known to the real husband but it is bad form to show jealousy.
Custom allows two wives, although one is the more general:
in some areas polyandry occurs. A man must be diligent enough to
satisfy the parents of a girl whom he wishes to make his second
wife. Attempts to marry more than two wives are very rare and
are regarded with the utmost disfavour. During the period of his
courtship the bridegroom begins to pay visits to the household of
the girl's people, and it often happens that he may be one of several
lovers. If the girl favours him, he becomes her habitual companion,
striving to please her with the product of his hunting during the day
and sharing her sleeping mat at night. If such a union is consum-
mated the girl's parents arrange that it should A young
husband resides for the period of a ladang's cultivation with his
wife's household. He returns to his paternal household with
wife from time to time, and finally settles down with one or the other.
The extended households are always changing as far as the younger
unions are concerned.
The Maintenance of Order.
Duty towards one's neighbour is for the Temiar duty towards
one's relative. The child grows up to recognise the bonds of kinship
and the duties, privileges and behaviour which they imply. Family
environment, which for the Te)1liar is the only environment, with its
scheme of relationships and the doctrine of mutual responsibility
which binds relatives together. precludes almost entirely those indi-
vidual variations from the norm which might endanger the
solidarity of the kindred.
Authority, therefore, is largely the voicing of common opinion,
and in so far as it is vested in one man it rests with the eldest son
of each generation, the middle generation in its maturity having the
balance of leadership. Leadership in certain food-quests which
depend for their success on organisation, above all lends authority to
a man. Beside this the power of thl) medicine man is less executive,
and only becomes prepotent at certain times.
Journ. F. M. S. Mus . - Vol. XIX.
Plate III .
Fell ing.
Burning off a new clearing .
Planting maize.
A large tapioca root.
1936] B1'eed and Culture 23
Succession of an eldest son not always being possible, it is by no
means rare for an able-bodied industrious son-in-law to take ov-er
the leadership of an extended household, when his wife's father has
become too old; which proves that a man becomes a full member of
his wife's group. In the course of generations the extended families
may become large enough to split UIJ into two separate households,
and in the process of descent this is continuous; thus a kindred group
may be composed of several such extended famili.es, but the tradition
of senior status in a' generation of the extended family is always
preserved in the wider kindred grouping. Such a process is traceablE'
everywhere in the tables of relationships and genealogies collected.
The office of "penghulu" or "batin " is alien to Temiar society
and is the result of appointment fron: the mikongs. These mikongs
are the hereditary liaison betw?en the Temiar hill-p-2ople and the
Malay kampongs towards the ulu. There are now only two of them
left, one at Kampong Temengor in Perak and one at Kuala Betis
in Kelantan. These two are related, being cousins. They were
originally Siamese and are relics of the Siamese domination of the
north of the Peninsula. Their ancestors married hill women
and thereby, according to the story told by the Malays, got
to understand the lore and magic of the hill people. Certainly they
are feared as much by the Malays who live in their kampongs as by
the hill people who claim a r'3lationship which is admitted by them.
The Datol, Mikong at Kuala Betis is much loved by the Temiar,
and from their point of view, he is their intermediary and ally.
The To' Pangku at Lasah, Alang Untong, who has recently died,
served the same function for the Temiar on the Plus and Korbu, a
considerable area. He also was originally Temiar, and was related
to all the "ketua" of the Plus Temiar.
The extension of kinship bonds, and the differential treatment
and reciprocal obligations which relationship implies leave small
scope for individual offences. Where so much is temporary and its
ownership shared, the conditions which make theft possibJ.e are
precluded. Crime and legal procedure are confined practicalIy to
quarrels arising out of abuse of the marriage contract. These aff:>.irs
necessarily do not affect "blood-!un," but affines, or relatives by
marriage.
A hushand whose wife has run away and is living permanently
with another man, may either revenge himself indirectly by gaining
the aid of a sorcerer or by blowpiping or spearing the man
who has su;:planted him. Three groups may become involved in such
a dispute. The principle is that the responsibility for individual
offences must be shared by the offender's group, while the victim's
group will likewise regard the injury as common cause and demand
compensation. Guilt is fixed on the heads of alI relatives in the
kindred group to which the offender belongs. The relatives of the
injured man will try to stop what must start a blood feud and force
thei r kinsman to submit the quarrel to the assembly of all groups
concerned. Each group then puts forward a representative who
places their case before a neutral party; the persons directly affected
keep silent and appear quite unconcerned. It is largely a questivn
of fixing the fine to be paid.
24 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums [VOL. XIX,
Should blood-shed occur, both the kindred concerned ultimat01y
make a pact whereby the group whc has lost the number
is prmitted to level up by claiming even victims, and thence-
forward the feud must stop.
Property.
The spirit behind Temiar notions of ownership may be
thus "where a man has given his work, there he has a share :n
ownership." Owing tt) their system of "shifting cultivation" I.wn
the Iotation of junior families from to group" an
household is constant only for the penod of a ladang s cultIvatlOll.
Thus all the families whf) make up the extended must
the duty of clearing, planting, and harvestmg; and thIS
implies the to eat the crops thereon. Owr::;rship of the
house or the "ladang" is thus only temporary. Permanent ownershIp
is bound up. with the clearly recognised territory of within
which the senarate extend-3d families who make un kmdred mav
plant their larlang-s. This IS the
of the whole kindren. each g-er:!ratlOn mhentmg It from the prevl?us
('ne. The T(>Tl1iar thus speak of the produce of the
iunde, . its hills, streams. trees, fruit and all ll;nimal .Iife th-s lr
saka as being- part of their herital!e. There IS no
therefore when an family in the process of oescent. sohts
lin -into households. for the saka remains freelanrl ?f
whilst each household is regarded as i,: It'!
particular ladang for the period of its cultIvatIOn.
Individual ownership is not entirely absent from the sch('me.
Private nroperty follows upon private :;ndeavour. A man makes or
barters for his own blownipe and auiver. loin-cloth, hean-dress.
ann othel deroration . Indivic!11al effort deriving- from outslrie,
such as bv bartering or selling- rotans, creates pnvate property.
But thiR effort is usuallv an affair of seoarate families. If a man
p-oes fishin!!" he invariably sharp.5 his catch first his family 3:7ri
then if it if; abundant wit.h the household. It IS the wJJ"!
animals caught in traps. So much i5 this custom of sharmg every-
thi.nJ! with one's fellows for granted, that the habit of
food to himself was quoted to me as the chief symptom of a
youth's insanity.
. The staple crops in the ladang are planted and eaten by all alike.
Individual familie5 may however obtain and plant new vegetables,
such as pumpkins or papayas. in plots of own .. the
surrounding sa1ca belongs to the kindred as a whole, If a!l
di5covers a new fruit.tree off the teaten track, he can claIm It as hIS
own. and when the season of fruiting he clear the
patch of jungle around it to assert and renew hIS ownershIp. When
on the hunt a bird or animal is killed, it is regarded as the .property
of the man who first sighted it, and if a companion follows It up ul'.d
affects the kill, he expects only a share of the meat as a reward for
his co-operation.
Economic Organisation.
It is essential to grasp the fact that the Temiar depend mainly
on the crops which they plant in their anq the ladang must
la36]
BTeed and Culture
25
be considered the fundamental economic unit. Their economic
organisation is however framed within the saka, the orbit of jungle
within which the extended families of a kindred may plant their
ladang; and the vegetarian diet is supplemented with tl1.8 produce
cf collecting, hunting, trapping and fishing in the surrounding jungle
of the saka.
The clearing, planting and care of the sillai (iadang) is the
outcome of organised joint effort on the part of the cons tituent
families of the extended household. The staple food of the Temiar
the tapioca root (ubi kayu) and at some seasons hill rice, millet
and maize are planted also. In the case of rice, the whole process
irom planting to husking is organised as joint effort; tapioca and
maiz8 are however gathered daily by each family, the women going
up into the ladang every morning.
Alongside of these staple crops, the individual families cultivate
little crops of supplementary food stuffs and other plants. Pumpkins,
marrows, spring onions, keladi
'
, keledek
2
, peppers, bananas, papaya
and sugar cane are thus planted; also "sumba" for dyeing and decora-
tion; a flax plant from which twine for fishing nets is obtained,
tobacco (mun) and some medicinal plants. These private crops are
also gathered by the women in the mornings.
The Temiar in the hills practise a modified shifting cultivativl1.
Each kindred must however not make its clearing outside the limits
of the saka. Moreover, the Temiar plant each successive ladang
adjacent to the previous one and stay for some years in one locality.
Certain groups (Pahulu Jagor at Kuala Cherus, Ulu Brok, Kelantan;
Long Jim at Kuala Mu, Ulu Plus; To' Dalem on Sungai J emheng,
Ulu Temengor: and Long Bintang at Jalong, Sungei Korbu) have
now settled down permanently.
The several extend0d households which form a kindred plant
their ladangs according to a pact. In anyone season one household
may plant padi, another maize, another millet together with their
tapioca, and the produce will be exchanged. Each household migrates
to each ladang in turn to assist in the clearing, planting and later
han,::sting. Sometimes the system will involve several wh.ole
kindreds over a large area. This confirms th2 rrinciple of sharirg
work and ownership of the crops.
The surrounding jungle supplies the Temiar with vegetables,
such as mushrooms, tender bamboo shoots, certain palms and leaves
and edible roots: with fruits such as kundang. ramiJutan, prah,
tam poi, langsat, duku
3
and. many others: with medicines such as the
sap of certain trees (prah), the w:lter of aerial roots, and various
plants (lebak 1imba, etc.): rotans, bamboos, atap and wood for
building houses, making traps, weapons, household receptacles,
bridges, rafts and musical instruments: poisons, such as the
inoh for the blow-pine darts: tuba fruit
4
, and "lai" made from
I Colladium or taro (colocasia antiquorum).
2 Sweet potato.
3 Bovea macrophylla, Nephebium lappaceum, Elateriospermum tapos, Bac-
caurea malayana, lansium domesticum, and the oval and sweeter variety (duku) .
4 Diospyros toposioides.
26 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums [VOL. XIX.
the leaves of wild banana for stupefying fish: bark-cloth, fibres,
ieaves and grasses for clothing and decorative purposes: al'rl
other plant>; for plaiting mats and baskets. All these of
collecting are done by the family groups separately, except In some
<!ases (tuba and la,i) which involve organised joint effort.
Spring traps are set for wild pigs, deer and bamboo rats, and
these again are separate family activities. But in the case of the
" prah " house and the "pagar" for pigs and deer, joint activities
are again operative.
Fishing is don-e with the line, or else with a casting-net weighted
with stones; traps are also made for fish, especially during the rains.
These are individual family affairs; but in the fish drive with the juice
of the tuba fruit to stupefy the fish, when the fruit has to be gathered
and pounded in the rIver and special darns constructed, there is joint
effort, sometimes involving hundreds of Temiar from kindr,eds for
miles around. The weapon of the class is the blowpipe (blau) and
the spear (bamboo-bladed, or iron forged by themselves or traded up
from the Malays). The poisoned darts from the blowpipe bring
down all kinds of birds, monkeys, apes, squirrels, flying foxes, flying
squirrels, rats and musang. Formerly the weapon of organised
offence was the bow, as opposed to the blowpipe which was the
weapon of the chase. The arrows were tipped with st-eel, made in
primitive' bamboo forges, one of which is now in the Perak Museum.
Groups down river will buy goats, pigs, beads, trinkets, brass
wire, cloth, chains for the jala (casting nets) and exchange them for
bamboo, shafts for blowpipes and fowls upstream. There is a system
of deferred payments. I have traced some beads bought by a Malay
from Chinese in Kuala Lipis, who took them to the Semai Senoi living
up the Jelai, thence they went up the Serau in Pahang, up the Brok
in VIu Ke!antan, into the Ulu Korbu and finally reached the Plus in
Perak. These articles traded up become private property and pla.'.'
no small part in the bride-price.
Fowls and goats are bred and traded to the road again. Rotans.
jeJutong, and some love potions (such as chindawei) for which the
Malays and Chinese pay highly, are also a source of wealth. Many
Temiar groups in Diu Plus and elsewhere wash tin.
Material Culture: Arts and Crafts.
To describe the material culture of the Temiar is to tell the
uses to which bamboo may be put. Bamboo is indispensable to them
for houses, household utensils, vessels, tools, weapons, fences,
baskets, water-pipes, rafts, musical instruments and ornaments.
The general shape of the dwelling occupied by an extended
family is "oblong"; but we may term the dwelling "long house"
provided that it is not presumed to have reached the specialiserl
length of some types of long house of Borneo or New Guinea. Temiar
houses may attain ninety to a hundred feet in lenth. Some house-
holds may number sixty p-ersons. Temiar houses are of the Murut
type, having the corridor in the middle, and the family compartments
on both sides.
Journ F. M. S Mus. - Vol. XIX,
Building a long house
co-operative effort.
Plate IV.
Completing the roof.
A T emiar extended family house.
,
Breed and Culture 27
T\vo convenient trees are chopped aud trimmed to the right
height to form the end posts, to support the central beam of t h ~
roof; the framework of fioor, walls and roof is formed of strolJ g
poles tied in place by rotan. The 1"001' is made some eight to ten feet
aoove the ground. The roof is made of nibong ibul* gathered
and plaited by the women. The flooring is made of long strips of
split bamboo interwoven so as to allow dirt and scraps to filter through
to the ground where the dogs and goats wait. The walls may
either be of baml:oo fixed horizontally l:ke a fence or else of
bertam stem; but at either end the atap thatching may be continued
very nearly to the fioor, whilst at the sides the roofing e x t e n d ~
well beyond the central floor, and it is under this overhanging part
that the separate families make their small compartm,mts. At
intervals along the sides there may be two or three compartmentR
for storing grain and foodstuffs, whilst on the raft,ers the blowpipes.
weapons, tools and baskets of each family are stored.
Each family has its own hearth of beaten earth bound around
with split bamboo, whi ch it is the work of the women to fashion.
1'he central fioor, on the other hand, is associated with group acti-
vities such as the preparation of a feast, rice-pounding and the
various dances and ceremonies. I have spent many nights in
Temiar hou&es.
Each family makes a raised bamboo platform and screens it
off at the sides. In some cases a dais may also be made in front
or at the sides of the hearth At one end of the house there is
usually a dais for the use of guests.
In some ladangs, a long wdter- pipe consisting of bamboo slit
at the nodes conveys the water from a distant stream to the house.
The Temiar are still capable of satisfying most of their need"
except salt without deJ:ending on trade : whilst fire may still be
made by the sawing-thong method, a rotan being pulled backwards
and fonvards against a piece of bamboo held down by the feet.
A hole is pierced in the middle of tht bamboo, a small piece of the
"down" used to wad the dart into the blowpipe is placed over the
hole, and a flame soon arises. Trap..;, spears, blowpipes, dart quivers,
mats, baskets and clothing and d2corations can all be made at home
from materials either grown on the ladang or else found in the jungle.
On the Sungai Nenggiri, the Piah and the Temengor, there
are Temiar who work iron, whilst many of them make bamboo rafts
and dug-out canoes; they havc also learnt from the Malays to make
sampans. Most rivers are for<led, but where convenient, bridges are
made, either of bamboo or a felled tree. At many places, where
the river is too wide for a bridge and too swift to ford, a raft is
secured to a rotan cable ti,ed to big trees on each bank.
Eleven to sixteen bamboos may be lashed together to form a
raft, and platforms built on top. At either 2nd a long pole is fixed
with a blad-e of split bamboo ("sweeps") to steer the raft through
the rapids.
At the mouths of small streams during the rains, when floods
are likely, dams are constructed to ' keep back fish when the main.
river descends.
QrllPia macroladus.
28 Journal 0/ the F .M.S. Museums [VOL. XIX,
The Spiritual Flement in Tel1uar Life.
To the Temiar .the whole of nature is impregnated by spiritual
forces, many of them personified in the form of evil spirits. Behind
all such beliefs there is the notion that man's society must maintain
the balance between itself and its environment. The healthful
community is the one which by medium of the hal a (medicine
man) can make use of Nature without offending her susceptibilities.
A full account of this important aspect of Temiar life will be
published later.
Here it is only neceSl'ary to point out briefly how the belief
in these spiritual forces serves to maintain the solidarity of
group life.
The "hala" is. the intermediary between man and the world of
spirits. But he does not only serve to combat with the aid of
"possession" by his tiger-familiar (gunig) the agency of the
spirits of whirl'. indignant nature is full. Many of the hala-dances
have a positive function, namely the preservation, and the reinforce-
ment maybe, ' of the morale' of the group, in the words of the
Temiar themselves, of the "ruwai" or 'soul' of the group. Just as
certain dances are perfoi'med to honour and renew the "ruwai"
of the many fruits and plants of the jungle on which the Temiar
depend, so also the luck of the group-ruwai is ascertained. When
the "hala" attains in his dance a state of "dissociation"-when he
"forgets his own self" as they say-he is believed to be possessed
by his "gunig" or familiar. It is this "gunig" which makes the
hala "powerful to heal sickness". He takes a handful of tapioca
(the staple food of the group) cut up into small pieces, and assuming
a posture of great tension throw,> with his half-open hand. The
"luck" of the group is considered to be good or bad according to
whether an even or an odd number remains in the hand. If it is an
odd number, the lurk of the group is not good, and a special hala
performance is necessary. These dances therefore. and others such
as the "kananyar" or the "chanachit" play a vital re-creative part
in Temiar life.
It is important, however, not to miss the social l;>asis for the
Temiar system of ethics. Society is a family affair, and duty
towards one's neighbour is conditioned by the fact that one's near
neighbour is usually related by birth or through marriage, and a
series of reciprocal duties and privilege are binding between each
and all. These are regulated by the fact that the bonds unite pot
merely individuals but groups of relatives who are social equivalents,
and anyone stands to lose in privilege where he fails in obligation.
THE BREED.
The Temiar Senoi are not a homogeneous grouo. Broadly
speaking there is a hill stock living in the headwaters of the rivers,
and a hybrid populat.ion living down-river who for the present
I propose to term the "older strata." This zoning must not be
regarded as rigid, for even in the remote hill groups "older strata"
types may occur, whilst "hill stock" types are also to be found among
the border population. This is not unexnected, for all types speak
a common loca.l and intermarriage
Journ. F. M. S. Mus . - Vol. XIX.
Plate V.
:><:
U
o
....
<I'l

w
o
..J
o
0<:


UJ
....
1936] Breed and Culture 29
occurs. Nevertheless, if one penetrates up any of the rivers which
flow from the eastern or western slopes of the main range, the
change fro:u one type to another is remarkable, but it is gradual.
Moreover, the Temiar are surrounded as we have seen, west,
north and east by nomad Negrito tribes, and between thes2 and the
border "olde!" strata" Temiar intermarriage has taken place. This
Negrito admixture is readily seen among the down-river population.
It is quite cbar that when previous investigators relied on
assembling a horde of Temiar at some accessible spot whether in
Perak or Kelantan, the individuals they observed would be predomi-
nantly "older strata" types with marked Negrito admixture.
Judging by the literature this was what misled anthropologists
and interested travellers alike into assuming that the older strata
elements versisted throughout the Temiar breed.
Thus, Low is impressed by th2 contrast between the slim pale
brown Senoi of the Batang Padang and the short dark-skinned
Northern Senoi whom he observed on the Lower Plus. Evans also
regarded the Semai as the pure Senoi stock and the Temiar he
describes as the "Negri to-Sakai" from his expzriences in the
Temengor area. Schebesta also describes the Temiar as a "large
mixed tribe", and considered the Semai as thp purer Senoi stock.
The only anthropologist who has crossed the Temiar territory
is Pater Schebesta, but as will be seen from the map his route took
him largely through the of older strata and Neg-rito admixture.
Moreover from my own experience a single journey through
such country as this does not give t\:lLobserver a representative
display of types. Schebesta's investigations among the Senoi cannot
be regarded as so thorough as his work among the Jahai
Negrit.Js. He only measured thirty Temiar, many of them in the
Temengor area.
N.evertheless, Evans did not regard the analysis of Senoi breed
un the basis of "older strata" types as satisfactury. And Schebesta
recognised elements which cannot be explained by the of
previous investigators based solely on examination of 'older strata'
types.
The anthropom8tric survey on which the present conclusions
are based was correlated with the demographic survey. Only when
the whole field has been explored from north to south, and each
big river has been visited, do the facts about the TE'miar breed emerge.
The Older Strata.
The border populations here called the "older strata" are all
representatives of early types of man. The term "olcler strata" is
new to science, and has emerged directly from a re-examination
of the Toala problem in South Celebes, in which I had the privilege
:)f assisting Dr. P. V. van Stein Callenfels. Dr. Sarasin, after
visiting the Veddas of Ceylon, recognised an element in the Malay
Archipelago which he described as a Veddasubstratum in the
population of South East Asia, and oC which he considered the
Toalas of Celebes to be an example. Rudolf Martin, who could only
have observed the border Senoi population. had already defined the
Senoi also as a Veddoid Substratum. Richards recognised elements
among the Korumba, Irula and Paniyan in Southern India as being-
.
30 JouTnal 0/ the F.M.S. Museums [VOL. Xix,
akin to the Veddas and suggested the term Pre-Dravidian for thi8
substratum. The "Pre-Dravidians" have since been described in
comparative anthropology as "Australoid". "Proto-Australoid" and
"Vedd-Australoid". And the Senoi or Sakai, Toalas and so on have
partaken of this advance in terminology.
The examination of the Toalas problem \\as of great interest
to me for I had denied the homogeneity of the Senoi in any direc-
tion. We found that no separate racial group akin to the Veddas
existed in Celebes, but rather that there, as elsewhere, the remnants
of migrations earlier than those which carried the Indonesian
cultures were still surviving in the inaccessible interior. These
elements were not representatives of a single race but the residue
of several. An Australoid and Papuo-Melanesoid element seemed to
be present, and probably others. Hence We adopted the term "Older
Strata," which avoids premature definition and leaves the chronology
and identification of these early migrations to be determined by
the systematic excavation of prehistoric sites.
These Older Strata types undoubtedly occur among the present
aboriginal population of the Peninsula, a:1d they are represented
among the down-river Temiar and Semai Senoi. Stature among
these Older Strat.a types is usually short, rarely above five feet.
The skin-colour is dark brown and body hair is well-developed. The
hair hangs down in tight curls or else stands up in a "mop". The
brow ridges and zygomatic arches are strongly marked and the
chin recedes. The head form is dolichocephalic. The nasal root is
depressed and the nostrils broad and outsplayed: the lips thick and
sometimes everted. "Kurap" (tinea circinata) and other skin
diseases are common among these Older Strata types. Dr. Rudolf
Martin has analysed the predominant short-statu red Australoid
element among the Older Strata, exhaustively. These are tile
typical" Sakai" of popular imagination. l
A short statured Negrito element would probably be included
among the older strata types elsewhere in South East Asia where
predominantly Negrito tribes are not at present found. In
however, Negrito tribes are widely dispersed, and intermarriage
with them is still to be observed. Moreover there is evidence that
the Negrito nomads may be more recent arrivals on the peninsular
scene than the elements surviving among the Older Strata.
Negrito admixture is easily recognised by the darker skin
colouring, still shorter stature, wooily or pepper-corn hair whiCh
clings close to the scalp, and smooth infantile profile of the forehead
and nose. Since children joill the group of the mother, the results
of this miscegenation are noticeable also among the Negrito tribes:
especially among the series of groups cailed Lanoh (or Serna' Belub' N')
who seem to speak a modified Senoi (Temiar) dialect. In the
Temengor :md Sengoh area much intermaiTiage has taken place
with the Jahai, whilst on the Lower Nenggiri the Menri are
concerned.
--------- ----- -- - ._- - --.-
I I cannot escape the conviction that a taller less primitive Australoid element
also occurs in the headwaters of the which may correspond to the taller
elements among the present population of Australian aborigines.
Journ. F. M. S. Mus. - Vol. XIX.
Plate VI.
Pie T emiar (Ulu Temengor. Perak) shewing Negrito admixture.
Pure Negrito type (Lanoh Negrito tribes. Kenering. Upper Perak).
1936J Breed and Culture
31
The fact remains that the border population of the Temiar who
live on the lower and acc.essible reaches of the rivers shewed marked
Negrito admixture which overlays their Older Strata characteristics.
As one proceeds further up the rivers on the eastern or western
slopes of the main range the breed begins to change. This is not
merely gradual diminution of Negrito admixture, but gradual re-
plal:ement of the basic Older Strata typeS by other far less primitive
types. To this extent it is permissible to speak of the Hill Stock
in contrast to the Older Strata. The Older Strata may predominate
for some way up the bigger river valleys, but once their tributaries,
which flow more precipitously down from the higher ranges are
foliower; up, we are in the presence of the Hill Stock, who inhabit
chiefly the sources of the rivers.
The stature has increased considerably: some individuals reach-
ing five feet eight or more, and the average lying around five feet
three. The build is :;Iim and "mediterranean," giving the appearance
cf tallne8s. The skin is a light fawn or pale cinnamon in colour:
many individuals, particularly the women being lighter than the
Peninsuiar Malays. The face is lozeng/e-shaped with well-marked
zygomatic arches and corresponding narrowing over the frontal
region. The hair on the head hangs down in loose waves, but is
usually cut short, often leaving a tuft in front over the forehead.
The body hair is scanty except for the pubic region and an occasional
pencil of hairs over the lip, and straggling from the chin. The nasal
bridge is medium with no marked depression at the root: there is
often a convexity about it. The eyes are a deep brown and the lips
only of medium thickness. The head is longish in proportion to
the hreadth, the average index being on the borderline of m e s ~
and dolichocephaly (C.L = 76.18) 1.
This Hill Stock type is frequently refined in appearance, the
women having well-proportioned figures and the men being fine
specimens of manhood, capable of great muscular development. Skin
diseases are on the whole rare and the people may be observed to
bathe frequently. While other elements may be present
2
and
modifications of this type, which wili be discussed later, undoubtedly
occur, there is little doubt that it corresponds to the hill people of
the archipelago included especially by continental scholars, under
the term "Indonesian." Some confusion however, exists in the
literature as to the pure Indonesian tyr;e. It is spoken of in earlier
literature on the Archipelago as being sometimes long-headed and
sometimes broad-headed. "Indonesian" is also used to describe
a language family, and it is also permissible to speak of all the
inhabitants of the geographical region called "Indonesia" as
"Indonesians" "
Recently English anthropologists
3
have adopted the term
'"Nesiot" ("islander") to distinguish the long-headed hill peoples
who followed the more primitive Australoid long-heads, but preceded
the maritime broad-headed HOceanic Mongols" aT Proto-Malays in this
1 This index was derived from measurements on the living subject.
2 The taller Australoid type mentioned previously.
3 L. H. Dudley-Buxton ("The Peoples of Asia")' Dr. A. C. Haddon (" The
Races of Man") and Professor H. J . FleUl'e ("The Races of Mankind").
32 JouTnal o[ the F.M.S. Museums [Vor,. XIX,
area. It must also be remembered, however, that more primitivE: .
tribes of Proto-Malay type occur, which seem to have migrated earlier
by land and not by sea. Most continental scholars still retain tl1E'
less-defined term Indonesian, but recentlyl some of them have
adopted the term "Nesiot."
The type described above occurs normally without any hint of
the Mongoloid, just as there are usually no typically Mongoloid
characters about many Older Strata types. Nevertheless, throughout
the Temiar population there are individuals who reveal a mongoloid
modification of the other types described here. point to be
established is the existence of an early mongoloid element in the
Senoi livery.
Patel' Schebesta in his final analysis of aboriginal physical types
describ2s an Australoid element which he rightly points out is not
exclusively typical of the Se!)oi, but as he says, crops up occasionally
among all groups. He does, however, describe what he terms the
"Pre-mongoloid Sakai type", which he regards as characteristic of
the Senoi tribes as a whole. He defines this type as being long-
headed, and possessing -not necessarily the "mongoloid fold" but a
"bordering fold over the inner canthus of the eye." The term
"pre-mongoloid" hardly seems apt or meaningful, and the occurrence
of a ' long-head' mongoloid type in an area where typical mongoloid
peoples are either broad-headed or even hyper-brachycephalic, de-
serves careful scrutiny. We are reminded of Dr. A. C. Haddon's
caution that in the study of the populations of South-East Asia we
should not neglect the possible drift southwards as well as north-
wards of early long-headed mongoloids, (the pataeoasiatics of
Siberia being of long-headed mongoloid strain) . That a mongoloid
strain occurs among the Senoi is amply corroborated by my own
investigations. The identity and relationship of this strain must,
however, wait upon the sifting of my field material by a specialist
in physical anthropology.
None the less my own results persuade me against this mongo-
loid strain being essentially characterised by long-headed ness. In a
population in which other elements which are demonstrably IO!1g-
headed are available for contributing this factor, only statistical
methods can hope to solve the problem, but since I have measured
s.nd observed many individuals of marked mongoloid
among the Temiar and Semai who are only of medium t 2aaform
I leave the question open for the present.
The really significant fact to my mind about the of
the mongoloid strain among the Temiar is its frequent association
with very low, almost pygmoid stature,2 in cases when Negrito or
Australoid characters are absent. the case for the exis-
tence of another and higher mongoloid strain, it seems difficult to
deny the presence here, particularly among the 'Older Strata' groups
of a vel'Y primitive mongoloid dwarf type, which may possibly be
proto-Malay. Prof. Otley Beyer has described such an in
the Philippines and distinguishes it from the later Malayan arrivals.
Dr. H. J. T. Bij'mer "The Relati<Yl1 of Blood-groups to TCtce and some
paritculars of the South-west. Pacific." Journal of the Royal AnthropoloO'ical
Institute, June, 1935. 0
2. Dr. it. must be remembered, seems to have surprised Dr. Rudolf
Martin by hiS descnptlOn of the Senoi in 1904 as "dwarf Mongolians."
Journ. F. M. S. Mus . - Vol . XIX.
Plate VII.
THREE Hill STOCK TEMIAR WITH BLOW. PIPES.
1936j The Ple-Temiar 33
The breed of the Temiar with its Mongoloid and Indonesian
elements seems to link up both with hill peoples of Asiatic
mainland (Shirakogoroff's "Southern Aborigines") and with the
Indonesian hill tribes of the Malay Archipelago. But it would seem
also that the remnants of earlier migrations, dwellers in the lowland
jungles, have retreated and been partl)' absorbed to form the hybrid
border populations of "Older Strata". In any case, there is ample
evidence for the racial types which Wilkinson postulated to make
these Temiar Senoi formidable among the Peninsular aborigines.
THE PLE-TEMIAR POPULATION.
Schebesta, who only visited two of the main valleys, estimated-
the population of the Ple-Temiar at 8,000; he was tempted to place
it higher. Mr. J. E. Kempe's Census in 19311 gives us 2,038 for the
Plus valley alone; moreover he met several Temiar from over the
Kelantan boundary (U1u Nenggiri) who said that they had not heard
of a Census. Tht! estimate for the U1u Nenggiri in 1931 which
was round about 3,500 is certainly too low, and few of the groups
towards the sources could have been enumerated.
I hElieve that the Ple-Temiar Senoi number about ten thousand
souls. This estimate is based on the individual family as the unit
of calculation. Throughout my reconnaissance I was plotting the
various settlements, and I always made a point of discovering the
size and locality of those which I was unable to visit myself. In
most cases (as with the PerIob, a tributary of the Betis) I met the
various headmen at the Kuala Betis and plotted the details from
their accounts. The Temiar will usually recall the number of hearths
in any pa.rticular house and each hearth represents a family. From
my genealogical analysis of several households I arrived at the con
c1usion that the average family is composed of four persons.
Population by river valleys.
Perak.--
Sengoh and Sam: very sparsely populated: about 300
only.
Temengor: the population is fairly evenly distributed
throughout its tributaries: about 1,050.
Ringat, Tengah, Dala and Soh: about 800.
Piah: about 600.
Plus: (the most accurate information): 2,039.
Chemor, Kuang, Kinta and Raw: about 800.
Kledang range (Sungai Chermin): 25.
KeIan tan.--
Brok: at least 1,500, the BIatop and Ber alone number over
500, and there are large communities below Kuala
Mering.
Betis: about 760; most of the population of the Betis is
concentrated along the PerIob.
------------
1 "Report on Sakai Census in Kuala Kangsar District." Mr. J. E. Kempe.
Perak State Records. (Contains many of the figures from which vital statistics
are drawn).
34 journal of the F.M.s. Museums [VOL. XIX,
Prias: at least 900; the population is fairly evenly dish'i-
buted over the Vlu Prias and its tributaries, the Yai
and Panes .
.Tindera: at least 600.
Sungai Nenggi.ri mainstream below Kuala Betis, and along
its smaller tributaries (Peralong, Vias, Chos and seve-
ral streams on the east bank) 450.
Pahang.-
Ulu Telom: 300.
Thus we arrive at a total population for the Ple-Temiar of
10,064. I believe this figure to be low rather than too high.
Vital )tatistics.
The distribution of the settlements is shewn on the map on the
2nd-cover. It is a matter of some importance to know, however,
whether the population is declining, or remains stationary, or possibly
is increasing. In 1931, Mr. J. E. Kempe, then District Officer, Kuala
Kangsar, made a census of the Temiar in the Plus valleys and t!le
full value of this historical document cannot be realised until 19411.
In the meantime howev8r, it is possible to draw tentative conclusions
ss to the trend of for the Temiar population as a whole.
A ge Distribution of the Popu.lation.
According to Sundbarg, a norn::al population has about one
half of its total between t he ages of fifteen and fifty: and if
population is to continue to grow the number of persons younger
than fifteen must be double the "/ho are over fiftv. Hutton
that this formula some modification if ft is to be
applied to India, and it is probable that it needs some re-adjustnwnt
bfore it can be accepted for the Malayan aborigines. It is extremo';ly
difficult to ascertain the exact ages of primitive peoples. On tht.
whole, huwever, the Temiar marry just after puberty, about the ag.e
of fifteen. The upper limit is more difficult to decide; really o!d
people, widows or widowers, can readily be picked out and recorded,
(they are always indicated in Mr. Kempe's Plus Census) but there
must always remain som2 doubt about the ages of those still
married who may vary from forty-five to fifty-five. Mr. Kempe,
therefore, not unreasonably, does not state the ages of the married
coupbs. Working on the criterion of marriage normally occurring
about the age of fifteen, however, we arrive at the proportion:
pre-puberal 47.41 7,. , post-puberal 5:! .59j; ; and since from g.eneral
observation at least five-sixths of married persons in the population
are young, that a very small proportion remains unmarried after
fifteen and so should be reckoned with this middle group, and that
:'cally old people are rare, the balance of evidence rather
suggests that a little less than half the population are'
between ages of fifteen and fifty; whilst the proportion of pre-puberal
rersons is so high that it certainly more than doubles the number
in the senile group of fifty years and over, who are very few indeed.
A significant fact, moreover, is that the proportion of pre-puberal
individuals is markedly higher among the more virile Hill Stock
than is the cas'e among the border communities.
On the whole, we may be certain that the Temiar population is
characterised by the rarity of octogenarians and the extraordinarily
high proportion of children below the age of puberty. On the other
1 His figures are summarised in Appendix V.
Jauro. F. M. S. Mus. - Vol. XIX.
Plate VIII.
1936] The Ple-Temiar Population 35
hand, there do occur a few individualg who live to a remarkable age,
as for example To' Lela of Jalong who must have been well a
hundred. The rarity of old persons is almost certainly due to the
ravages caused by the influenza epidemic just after the war. A
certain custom whicn is rapidly falling into disuse rather suggf.!sts
that persons did live to so great an age that they became feeble
minded; for the Temiar admit to the practice of forcibly burying
very old men who to linger in a condition of suspended
animation, quite incapable of fending for and yet occa-
sionally bursting into homicidal activities which made them not
only a drag, but a danger to the community. The eviden::e from
Age distribution, such as it is, rath:r suggests that while the "Older
Strata" down-river communities are decreasing, the hill stock is
more likely to be on the increase.
Sex ratio.
It has often been maintained that masculinity is symptom3.lic
of a declining population. The 1931 Census of India, however,
revealed an increase of thirty-four millions in ten years, yet the
population of India as a whole is characterised by heavy masculinity.
On the other hand it has been pointed out by Hutton that pru-
portion of males to females varies considerably at different ages
and that the sex ratio of the brzeding part of a population is more
indicative: there are actually more females than males ill the
population as a whole between the ages of twenty and
For the population of the Plus Temiar, we mav derive frem
Mr. Kempe's figures that males predominate only there
bf'ing 108.59 males per 100 females.
From enumeration of groups spread widely all over th::! P!e-
Temiar area, however, I find that among the survivinp: populati(l!}
males and females level up, there about one male to every
female. It is 'Perhaps more interesting to note that the sex rat;o
varies when we compare the conditions among the hill with
the conditions among border communities. Thus figures taken from
the hill stock shew that while a few more male::; are born than
f('males, infant mortality is relatively higher among the male
children, so among the survivals females actually outnumber t. h"
males. It is interesting to note also that polyandry occurs
among the Hi!! Stock.
Among the down-river communities, 011 the other hand, one
or two of which such as Jalong, are rather large in the Plus area,
conditions are different. Whereas once again more males are born
than females, and relatively more male children die than females;
yet a higher proportion of female childre n die than is the case among
the hill stock, so that the existing population is characterised by
masculinity. Once again, from point of view of sex-ratio, the hill
stock communities are found to be ir a healthier condition than the
down river groups.
Marital Indices.
The large majority of unions among the Temiar are monoga-
mous. In the Plus area only 4.7 7;' of married males are polygamous ,
36 Journal of the F M .S. Museums (VOL. XIX.
all of whom had two wives, only one man having three. On the
other hand, in the Sungei Prias in Kelantan polygamy is m0re
frequent, and curiously enough we find a few cases of polyandry
among the hill stock settlements up this river, as well as in tne
U1u Temengor. In nearly every case of polygamy the first wife
is recorded as being barren, and in most cases the second wife is
the younger sister of the first. II. the instances where polyan<:1.ry
was noted, the two husbands of the women in question were also
brothers.
On the whole the percentage of unmarried males of middle age
is very smaIL Among the down river communities, where the
6lightly greater proportion of males over females has be2n noted,
a fair number of young widowers nevertheless occur, for among
these groups tribal custom is frequently weakened and divorces
are very common. Many women, it was noted, had been the wives,
successively of two, sometimes three or more men, whilst one man
had married eight times. Thus, while there are not quite sufficient
females as mates for all the men, it is rare to find a middle-aged
man who has never m2xried.
Size of family.
. The figures for the Plus suggest that the average union pro-
duces about two children. One family had eight surviving children
and a fair proportion had four. One family I found in the Ulu
Telom had nine children, one in the Vlu Jindera (Kelantan) had
nine also.
Mr. Kempe not-ed that the size of the family increased the
further he went up the Plus. This is true throughout the Temiar
territory. The families among the Hill Stock are definitely larger.
Whereas among the Hill Stock, two and a half children per marred
Woman is the average, among tb.2 down-river communities the
average has fallen to only one and a third.
Fertility Rate.
Mr. Kempe's Census figures for the Plus do not, however, take
into account the number of children who have died. I have endea-
voured to provide a series from my genealogical analysis in order
to remedy this gap. * For the Temiar population as a whole the
average married woman can expect to bear about three-and-a-third
children. Taking into account the down-river communities only,
we find the average number of births has fallen to about
two-and-a-half per married woman, whereas among the HilI Stock,
the series shews a substantial average increase to a little over
three-and-a-half per married woman. It must be rememhered
that the influenza scourge after the war affected chiefly the older
generations; most of the unions recorded are young and the statistics
given here are probably lower than the normal rate, which should
be apparent by 1941.
Dl:jJerenUal Sur'vi'val Values.
Among the Temiar population as a whole, of two hundred and
twenty-eight births. only one hunored and sixty children have
survived infancy. Taking the down-river communities alone. my
My figures, including records of children wh(l have died, are shewn in
Appendix VI.
Journ. F. M. S. Mus. - Vol. XIX.
Plate IX.
-
- l
I
I
z

....
z

-'
w
~
~ --
U
'"
0 i3
....
l-'
Vl
z
-'
W
....I Z
I
:::>
-'
'" <
:::>
~ 6
w
~ ....
'"
w
~
iii
l-'
Z
:::>
Vl
1936J The Ple-Tem,za1' population
37
series shew that from one hundred and thirty-seven births, sixty-two
infants died and only seventy-five have sUl'viv-8d, which is little over
half. Among the hill stock, on the other hand, of one hundred and
fifty-seven births only forty-five children died whilst one hundred
and twelve survived infancy. There is, therefore, a spectacular
difference as tetween the Hill Stock and the down-river groups.
On the whole among the TemiaJ', the male in [ant stands I':!ss
chance of survi val than the female. Of one hundred and twenty
three male births forty-three die in infancy, whilst of the one
hundred and five female births distributed over the same families
only twenty-five die in infancy.
If however we take the down river alone we find
thAt Revent);-four male births only forty survive-little more
than half-whilst of sixty-three female births recorded from the
same famili'2s, thirty-five survive. Among the Hill Stock, on the
other hand, only twenty-eight out of eighty-one male births do not
sUl'vive infancy, whi lst only seventeen out of seventy-six
births from the same families do not survive infancy.
Factors bearing upon Fertility and
Elimination among the T emiar.
Pre-pubeTa.1 intercourse.
Boys may not sleep with eligible girls under any circumstances
until they have themselves puberty. Among the Temiar the
only word corresponding to our word marriage is "to sleep", and
courtship takes the form of temporary unions. The Temiar youth,
however, must avo:rl actual penetration for at least a month after he
has begun sleep' ng with a girl, but he is permitted to sleep with a
girl before she has reached puberty provided he avoids actual
penetra tion.
Prolonged lactation.
The period of suckling a child depends on how soon the next
child is born. Thus it may last for t.wo or three years, whereas
on the arrival of another baby, the former child is discouraged. It
is obvious, therefore, that there is no abstention of during
lactation, except during the first month after the birth of a child.
Abstention from intercourse.
There is no tabu on intercourse during pregnancy. Tabu on
sexual intercourse is sometimes temporarily as part of the
"hala's" (medicine-man's) treatment of sickness.
Initiation ceremonies.
The Temiar practise no initiatory rites. No forms of bodily
mutilation are practised which might affect natural act of sex;
or might, if badly performed, possibly lead to deformity (circumci-
sion, incision and sub-incision) .
. Postponement of rnan'iage.
A headman may in rare cases prevent an idle from taking-
a mate, though more the girl's parents or the girl herself
would object first. Normally, however, a youth can sleep with a
girl so soon as he has "dreamed", provided he avoids penetrat ion
until she has reached puberty.
jou1'iwl of the F.M.s. MuseumS
[VOL. XlX.
Contracepti've pr-actices and abortion.
So far as I have been able to ascertain no form of contraception
is normally practised. I was told that there was a certain root, very
rarely used, which could bring about abortion, but no conclusive
information was forthcoming.
lnjantic1de.
Infanticide is not, to my knowledge, normally practised; the
Temiar love children and I should say it was unknown among the
interior groups. Whilst I cannot as yet prove it, I suspect
might occur among communities, where family cohesion and
the ties hetween parents and children are often broken down by
frequent divorces. ' Among other primitive peoples the effects uf
infanticide are often explained away by reference to "black magk,"
and it is remarkable that in Jalong for instance a very large propor-
tion of death,'! in infancy are attributed to " bajang." I
Exposw'e at Childbi1"th.
Newly-horn babies among the Temiar are I.Ot dipped in cold
rivers under the impression that this "strengthens them" as is
recorded among many primitive peoples. A proportion of deaths in
infancy is more likely to be due to carelessness of another sort,
too-early feeding with heavy starchy food (tapioca).
Difficulties of labour-s at birth.
One of the most remarkable things about these people is the
amazing ease, and lack of pain, at childbirth. I can vouch for it
myself that the mothers are taking part in the normal round after
lying up for only two days. The neighbouring kampong Malays
always express their amazement to me about the "elmu" which the
Temiar ,enjoy. It is stated that certain plants are eaten i:l.nd applied
oxternal!y to the nursing mother. A few cases of death at child-
birth do nevertheless occur, though they are extremely rare.
Twins.
The normd birth is one baby; twins are extremely rare and it
s('ems that one or other rarely survives. Triplets were never heard
of, and mention of the possibility caused great amusement and
references to "litters of animals".
KiUing of Old and Sick.
The mildly insane are left to themselves in the house and fed.
As previously stated, very old people who lose their reason and
become a and occasionally violent, were forcibly buried.
This is probably extinct now-a-days.
Disease and Infant Mortality.
It has been seen that among the down-river communities nearly
as many infants die as survive. Malaria, except among the Hill Stock
groups, accounts for a iarge proportion of the infant mortality. It
seems as if there comes a time, usually about the period of weaning,
when the child is about two years old, when it must either attain a
certain immunity to malaria or else not survive. Most of the infant
I A hantu. known and fe.ared greatly among kampong Malays and,
to Dr. P. V. van Stein Callenfels,-who has written a note on this belief-
among the Javanese and elsewhere in Indonesia.
Journ. F. M. S. Mus. - VoL XIX. Plate X.
Two T emiar (Hill .tock). Ulu Piah, Perak
1936]
The Pie-1'emia1' ?opulatton
mortality occurs, about the period of weaning. An interesting
custom reflects this fact. The Temiar do not name their children
until they can walk, since they say should the child die, they will
not be able to remember that" so-and-so is no more," and they will
not feel so sad.
. ." Rajang" is stated to claim a very large proportion of child
victims In Jalong. This may te, as I have tentatively suggested a
euphemism. "Bajang" according to the Malays is a form of
practised by certain people, for which some Siamese know an antidote.
is described at Jalong as an evil influence conveyed by an insect
lIke .a w.ith a red body and black teeth, which appears
at mght: Its buzzmg IS greatly fearea. The symptoms, as described
by the people at Jalong, follow a certain course. The tongue goes
white and then yellow-brown; then it falls back into the throat, and
the child goes rzd in the face and dies of suffocation. I have not vet
had a chance of seeing a case of " bajang" so whether this form's a
clinical picture which is familiar to a doctor remains to be seen.
" Bajang" is definitely localised, since it was never quoted to me
outside Jalong.
A small proportion of the population suffer from tuberculosis,
though this is rare among the hill st<><:k. Influenza has a particularly
fatal effect on the Temiar population.
It is clear that the major factors of elimination operat-3 during
infancy, particularly around the period of weaning. If these fadors
could be controlled the population would nearly double within a
comparatively short time. Meanwhile, consideration of all the evi-
dence suggests that the Hill Stock are more than holding their OWI1,
whilst the down-river communities are probably suffering a gradual
decrease which, as in the case of Jalong, is continually being made
/!ood by arrivals from the interior. Whatever the trend of the
population, it is certain that it is not catastrophic, but very gradual,
and it seems likely that within a few years the decrease following
the post-war influenza epidemic may be provided for by the pres\!1t
predominating younger generation, provided always that some major
disturbance of their natural life does not occur.
Temiar Reservation in the Ulu Telom.
The Rening extended family which forms one of six households in this
Reserva tion. numb-ered, when I first visited the locality in 1932, forty-five persons
-ae can be ' seen in the plan opposite page 21. When r visited it in October 1936
I found that since the Reservation was formed, there has, among these same
families been only one death and thirteen births, and three women were also
pregnant. This means an increase of 26.33% in less than four years. The
population of the whole Reservation has increased from 193 to 233 souls; this
does not mean the immigration of new groups, and thouj!h it includes the arrival
of fresh mates for marriages also takes into account the emigration of young
people who have married into other groups. Whilst these fiNures are too small
to warrant large scale assumptions they do support my statement that the hill
stock is more than holding its own.
40 Journal of the F .M.S. Museums
PART III.
CONTACTS.
The Pie- T erniar and the Forests.
[VOL. XIX,
No part of the Vlu Nenr-giri ha!': yet been constituted a Forest
Reserve. In Perak there are the Piah, the Korbu and the ChiCI'
Forest Reserves. The Forest Enactments constituting these reserves
recognise the Temiar to some extent as 'lords of the soil' but restrict
the felling of new clearings, and also control their trading in certain
jungle produce (rotans, atap, etc.). Since much of the revenue of
the Forest Department is obtained from these activities of the
aborigines, it is just to set this off against the 'tale' of timber
destroyed. Unmodified shifting cultivation in these jungles means the
destruction of good timber: I counted eight merbau trunks in a
newly-felled ladang in the Vlu Plus. The felled area is of course left
open to the sun for some time, and after two or three successive days
without rain the plot is "fired." The Temiar complain that is is not
profitable to leave valuable timber unfelled, since the "burn" is affected.
Yet when one surveys the surrounding jungle from the peaks of
the main range, the traces of old clearings are swamped in oceans of
undisturbed primary jungle.
The factors leading to complete deforestation in other parts of
Indonesia do not operate on the main range. No dry spell is so
prolonged as to allow fires lit for burning off a felling to ravage
unchecked, as happens in Celebes: the high monsoon winds which
have contributed to the forest less highlands of Vlu Trengganu do not
reach these mountains: and the Temiar do not tend cattle except at
one or two settlements on the borders where they have settled into
'kampongs.' Thus secondary jungle soon grows up in their, deserted
clearings, and although it may take half a century to mature, he
landscape remains in the long run unchanged. It must also be
remembered that each Temiar group has a well-defined area
outside it may not make its clearings; so that while along
some rivers the settlements are passed at frequent intervals, miles of
jungle along- other rivers may be quite uninhabited.
The Temiar, it may as well be realised, do not choke the jungle
back like the 'darat' Malays of Ulu Tembeling, Sungei Nenggiri and
other rivers who indulge in shifting cultivation; for Temiar methods of
planting do not admit of the encroachment of lalang grass
l
.
The timber on the upper reaches of the rivers is, moreover, poor
and inaccessible from a commercial point of view. It is among the
"border groups" of older strata that shifting cultivation needs to be
controlled, for there we have actual or potential Forest Reserves
Fortunately, there exists among many hill stock Temiar groups a form
of much moctified 'shifting cultivation' which is well worth developing.
The problem of deforestation is clearly bound up with matters
of cultivation and an examination of Temiar forms of cultivation may
well provide a solution.
I fmperata cylindrica,
1936] Contacts 41
The Ple-Terniar and Cultivation.
The Temiar derive their food-supply mainly from the crops they
plant in their ladang. Although they practise shifting cultivation,
it is of an intensive nature and higher than forms found among other
peninsular aborigines, with the -exception of the Jah Chong of the
eastern slopes of Guncng Benom, Pahang, who are wet cultivators.
The Temiar have lain ;)utside the sphere of diffusion of terraced
cultivation, the only means whereby wet rice may be grown in
mountainous country. They have no ploughs, but only primitive hoes
fol' breaking the soil. The seeds are sown in between the stumps of
the felled trees. Tapioca (ubi kayu) takes so much of the fertility
from the soil that unless it is renewed it cannot bear more than two
good crops. They keep no domestic animals from whom manure may
be obtained. Thus, planting up fresh ground has been their only
means of obtaining successive crops: and up to the present time
there has hEn no restriction of their movements, and though their
residence on the Perak-Kelantan divide must be of some antiquity,
large tractg of virgin jungle must be crossed between the" saka"
of each group. As we have seen, the shifting cultivation is controlled
by the fact that the local units composing each kindred must not
cle.'1r ladangs outside the limits of their own 'saka.'
The dry padi crops often tum out bad harvests: it is worth
noting that the Temiar recognise only certain pieces of land to be
good for hi!! padi, and they will return to the same areas season after
season with a suitable period intervening. On the other hand their
tapioca roots which are dug out daily as they are needed, in
their size and flavour those grown on the plains by Chinese and others.
Millet and maize are two other staple crops which give good returns.
Various yams, several kinds of gourds, sweet potatoes and other
vegetables including teron,Q chatut are also grown successfully,
There is usually plenty of choice, and onlv the smaller groups suffer
any monotony of diet.
The Temiar are indeed keen cultivators and anxious to tryout
new foodstuffs. Potatoes and onions were given to a group in the Vlu
Plus three years ago, and they are stilI being grown. The groups
oyer the Kelantan corder from Cameron Highlands regularly take
back European vegetables to plant in their ladangs. If one eats fruits
new to them, such as grapefruit or orange, they will store up every
pip to plant themselves. A chief and his son who accompanied me to
Kota Bahru insisted on taking back from the Government
Experiment'll Plantation, the seeds of long bean, soya bean and ground
nut, which they had watched being planted. On the credit side must
also be laid the fact that they do not 'vaste: their harvest on the
brewing of intoxicating iike so manv other peoples of South
East Asia. On the whole, the Temiar would welcome any effort on
our part tJ improve their cultivation. They are ready, on their side.
to lear:,.
_ Two forms of shifting cultivation are pursued by the Temiar.
Many groups move each year or two within the orbit of their saka to
plar,t up fresh clearillgs, building a new house at each clearing.
42 JOUlIw,1 of the F.M.S. Museums (VOL. xiX,
Some groups, however, remain in the same spot for several years
clearing each successive ladang on the slopes around them. There is
clearly discernible a tendency for the second form of modified shifting
cultivation to supersede the former and more migratory form. So
much so, tlVlt some of the most advanced groups have not moved their
settlements for ten years or more. These groups have settled dowf'.
in one or other of the many aJIuvialflats to be found in the headwaters
of most of the rivers. Pa Dalem has not moved from the site he
inhabited ncar Kuala Jemhcng when Pater Scbebesta visited the
Temengor about twelve years ago. The groups at Paldeng, Kuala
Blatop (Ulu Brok, Nengg-iri) ; Kuala Mu, and Legap (Ulu Plus) ; Jalong
(Sungei Korbu); Pred (Ulu Betis), and many other tesides have
adopted this modified form of dry cultivation. It is the universal
application of this process, especially in the border areas carrying
valuable timber, which would solve the problem of the forests.
A study of the evolution of Culture Types among hill people in
Indonesia supports the idea that a more settled mode of dry cultiva-
tion can be made to grow out of shifting cultivation. The Toradjas,
an Indonesian hill people of Central Celebes, whom I have visited for
a "hort time, exhibit a pattern of cultivation towards which the
Temiar could develop. Among them the extended family houses
composing a kindred are grouped t<'r;ether to form a village, which
remains for years on the same site, wme convenient gradual slope or
spur in the valley. Around, there is open parkland stretching down
to the streams, and only the higher crests and steep ravines on the
hill-sides are wooded. The village makes its clearings in rotation on
the hill slopes around, and a small temporary house is built close to
the clearing, where according to the season the cultivators may reside
whilst the work of planting, fencing or harvesting is in progress. The
division of labour in this enterprise follows a well-established pattern
among the various kin. Thus only at certain seasons are the whole
households together in the main village.
The fact that many Temiar groups have found such a pattern
of cultivation practicable convinces me that a scheme which set out to
settle all these aboriginal groups along such lines would be both
feasible, profitable and would carry 1:1. powerful survival-value for the
Temiar themselves. The essence of the scheme is that the local group
maintains a permanent settlement in some suitable place and clears
and plants up '1adangs" in rotation on the slopes of the hills around.
If a plantation is left to lie 'fallow' for five years it will hold "belukar"
thick enough to Durn of, leaving a soil renewed for planting. The
cultivation of the Temiar is of such a nature as to prevent the intrusion
of 'Ialang' which would, of course, ruin the plot for a second planting.
The belukar which grows up ::onsistt:! largely of leguminous, nitrogen-
fixing plants which ensure the fertility of the soil. We may call such
a scheme" a type-settlement based on a five field system."
Such type-settlements are essential along the border areas hold-
ing valuable timber. scheme could begin by the
of one such settlement at the head of each river valley, which bl'
reason of its accessibility to the district offices would serve as the
pattern for the various propaganda now being considered under
Journ. F. M. S. Mus - Vol. XIX. Plale XL
T higher Mongoloid Iype (Ulu Plus. Perak).
T emiar wilh Melanesoid slrain (Ulu Piah. Perak) .
1936j Contacts 43
separate headings, but finally to be summed up under the heading
of "Pattern Settiements."l They would thus be easily accessible to
the field officers of the Agricultural department, who could apprais-e
and ensure the progress of their ' cultivation.
The Temiar and Wild Life.
It is generally assumed that the aborigines are largely responsible
for the extermination of wild life. Here it is germane to examine
the grounds for such a charge, insofar as it is l e v e l l ~ d at the
Temiar Senoi. It has been stressed in the proper place that
the Temiar depend mainly on the produce of their cultivation for
their subsistence. This does not mean that they do not kill wild life,
but it does mean that hunting and its attendant activities is definitely
a subsidiary foodquest among them. They bring down birds and
various arboreal creatures with their blowpipes: they occasionally
catch deer and pig in their traps: and they fish the rivers. N ever-
theless flesh' in any quantity is so much a luxury that its consump-
tion is an occasion for group-celebration and dancing. The quicken-
ing of the rhythm of tribal life which follows a successful "catch"
is just such a re-action as would be expected among a people whose
diet consists mainly of cereals, vegetables and fruits.
It is necessary to understand the significance of meat in the
system of Temiar belieffl and ritual. There is always believed to be
danger connected with the consumption of meat. The pJ;egnant
woman, and her husband during the period preceding and following
the birth of a child, may not even sit close to a meal of which meat
is an ingredient, let alone eat it. Before adolescence no children
may touch it, and it is the most frequent diet tabu imposed by the
medicine-man on his ailing patient. Since the role of the medicine
man himself as intermediary between human society and the spirit-
world is fraught with danger, meat is deni-ed also to him and his
appr-entices. Meat and fish may never be eat-en at the same meal.
The barking-deer is particularly dangerous food and only a few can
eat its flesh: whilst the mountain goat is believed to be the incarna-
tion of a culture here "Bamoh" who taught the Temiar the secrets
of childbirth. Consequently few dare to eat its flesh, and the
youngest born of each family may not eat it on pain of death. Such
a death ascn"bed to the b.reaking of this tabu occurred in the u1Eu.
Blatop during my residence. OnJy the bodily and spiritually fit, the
full members of the working group, may taste it. Obviously these
food tabus permit only a small number of each local group to join in
a feast of flesh on anyone occasion.
Birds probably suffer more than any other form of wild life.
But as for fish, on any of the Temiar rivers small groups of Malays
may be met poling up to find fish, since so few are left downstream
near their own kampongs.
An area which has been instanced particularly as having suf-
fered depredation of its wild life at the hands of the Senoi iii
Cameron Highlands. This is indeed a test case, though it is perhaps
1 A "Pattern Settlement" is therefore, a settlement of the five-field system
type, which is selected as a base for propaganda.
44 journal of the F.M.s. Museums
[VOL. XIX,
not unimportant to note that the extreme ulus of the Bertam and
Telom rivers which drain the "Development area," were a kind of
no-man's ?.and, lying as they do, on the boundary betw'3n the two
Senoi tribes, Temiar and Semai. One small Semai group only used
to live near Kuala Terla in the Ulu Telom, but they have since moved
down into the Ulu Kampar Jwing to the former prevalence of man-
eating tigers. The Semai groups on the lower Bertam and one in
the Ulu Habu, had other hunting grounds. The bamboos on which
the Senoi depend for most of their material needs do not grow well
up at such heights as the European residential area, and in actual
fact no Senai groups care to live at an altitude above about four
thousand feet anywhere along the main range
l
.
European visitors to Cameron Highlands may not be aware that
at no point north to Gunong Noring does one find wild life at all
plentiful at such heights; but elsewhere as at Camerons it is only
necessary to descend into the valleys occupied by the Temiar to be
once again surrounded by game. This fact can easily be proved by
making an excursion down the Telom from Cameron Highlands. If
one camps near the thriving Temiar groups on the Rening birds flock
among th3 branches after sunrise and before sundown: and the
paths to the salt licks are scarr'3d with the tracks of deer, elephant
and other game.
The oft-repeated statement that the "Sakai" killed off all the
game on Cameron Highlands is, in fact, a fallacy. The corollary
that "the birds are coming back" simply means that some of the
many flocks which frequent the Senoi cl-earings are now finding
attractive new plots opened to the sunshine higher up in the formerly
dank highland woods. There were any numbr of fish in the lower
Bertam until the road-clearing choked up the riv-er: now that the
river is clear again the fish are also "coming back."
Taking the Temiar territory as a whole, we have to admit when
we have studied it at first hand that the Temiar and wild life have
lived together in an ecological balance and that measures to ensure
the survival of wild life are not incompatible with the interests of
th-e The Ulu Nenggiri, Kelantan, especially the Sunqei
Brok and its -tributaries, is full of hotsprings, and g?me of all kinds
is abundant. The traveller will find the deer and small game fairly
undisturbed. The elephants destroy the plantations of the Temiar,
and thus tracts along which th3 herds are numerous tend to be
uninhabited. such as the Brok north of Kuala Mering and Kuala Ber,
and the lower stretches of its tributal-ies. The lower Plus and the
lower Piah are also full of game: whilst the Sengoh would appear
t.o be full of tiger and elephant, the tracks of the latter being found
ht an altitude of four thousand feet. The elephants regularly visit
saltlicks on the Sungei Rening, down the Te!om above Kuala Bertam,
coming over from the Sungei Mering in Kelantan, and that would
sCem to be their nearest haunt to Cameron Highland" at the present
time.
The Temiar and Health.
On the whole, the health of these aborigines improves the
further one penetrates into the hills.
2
It is difficult to isolate the
I There have been, in fact, many more al;origines in the Development area
since it was opened up than ever before (employed for clearing jungle, etc.)
2 See IV for corroborative figures.
1936J
Contacts
45
factors responsible for this rather spectacular state of ff' F
up from. lower reaches into the
s reams we are movmg 1I1tO cooler climes particular! . e
also penetrating above the fever belt which
a tel' the two thousand foot contour: we are also a 0" fi m 'lU
more robust breed of a higher cultural level' 'n a h
ner
and
undisturbed by culture contact. . I a regIOn on t e whole
speaking, a community which i ..
111 a mllieu in which artificial difficulties are
e natural dangers to which the communiL h b e
can fail to suffer. It is
sue a commumty, has to compete with the Forest De art-
the Game Department, and possibly authorities who .
away fro.m more congenial haunts b; the side of th . nVe
ecauS their habitat has since been made a "water t h
that isthweighted against its
, . cmeans m at case the good fortun f th
plant or animal which is selected as the totem b' -e
t
0 f e genus of
of protection Such 0-' -0 J ec 0 some agency
ravages of ,,:oreover, more exposed to the
diseases for which arad' as mfluenza, measles and venereal
other the oth:r has n?t bred resistance. On the
of man cannot be denied as pSoStUCt fas taltltude and the higher breed
Wh t _ en ac ors.
hill t a
l
ever the. reasons, there is no doubt that the health of the
s oc { groups IS aeneraJIv ve' d d .
needed chiefly by the "'border '0- ry ,an medical attention is
Mohammedanism forces th ",roups. t mdon
g
these the influence of
Th' e savage 0 a opt unnecessary cl th'
e new articles are worn against b tt . d 0 mg.
not taken off when wet as the '. e er Jlu
l
gment; they are usuallv
. . - re IS usua y no 'change' d .
moma IS too often the result lVI . ' an pneu-
"the share-and-share-alike the premIUm put upon
towards the Co-operative :f 111 other spheres has helJ?ed
of clothing also, and it is not tao much e
t
group, leads the shar1l1g
to the spread of skin disease "K " ? say that this is conducive
groups, and indeed cases oft urap IS rare a:nong the hill stock
Y t hI' . t!n segregated 111 separat h
e ere a so It IS sio-nificant th t th f' e ouses.
often to hide 'kurap": Th' '" a I e unctIon of clothing is too
h
. IS was a so a recorded stat f ff'
among t e ulu Malays when the British fir e. 0 a airs
Similarly, it is still true of the h' st came to this country.
diseases have not invaded their territo;.1l.1 groups that .venereal
border groups. Yaws scabies t b Y'I . IS cannot be Said of thf'
th I
. ' ,u ercu OSIS asthma mala' d
o e1' comp all1ts oCCur amono- th 1'!I ' , na an
valent among the 'older strata ' but far pre-
the NegTito nomads amono- who k * r edrs. .It IS pOSSible that
k' d' " m lll'ap an alhed rinaw d
s 1Il Iseases are now so prevalent ma ha' " b .orm an
complaints and inter-marriao-e with Yth \ e
ld
on
g
1l1all
y
earned these
t
-I h' h b e 0 er strata ""roup- d
o ler Ig er groups elsewhere has led to th '" . s,
However this may be, it is the borde e sprea? of the
need of medical attention It d r who stand 111
t h
. oes not reaUll'e much . - . t'
osee t at these barder communit' f. -h Imag1l1a JOn
t . d . les, 10m W om the Mala I
Ion IS rawll1g, are a Source of deg . t b . - Y popu a-
_ enera JOn oth to their healthier
Tinea imbricata.
46 Jomnal of the F.,M.S. Museu1'/tS [VOL. XIX,
hill fellow tribesmen and also to their neighbours in kampong, kebull
and kongsi. They are in fact "danger spots" where infection may
lurk and spread thence into the administrative areas to which active
health measures are usually restricted. Once again we see the value
of 'pattern settlements' in border areas accessible to the Officers
of the district concerned. It seems as if medical aid is the greatest
boon Government can confer on these border groups; by extending
the benefits of civilisation much can be done to lessen the insiaious
effects of rapid culture-contact: extinction begins with infection and
infection may "hit back" on the higher culture.
This could be accomplished if the District Health Officers could
occasionally visit the "Pattern settlement," and send a Dresser and
travelling dispensary once a week. There has been no lack of response
on the part of the Temiar since this was practised a year or two
ago in the Plus district of Perak. But once again, unless
systematised with the departure of the officer concerned the
practice may be discontinued. Reference to Appendix III of this
paper will serve to instance what has impressed many who have
been in contact with the Temiar: namely that they seem to break
through superstition more readily than the kampong Malay and
develop an eager confidence in the of European medicine.
The system of periodical visits on the part of the District Medical
authorities to the pattern settlements plays a vital part in the
success of the Scheme.
Trade and Enterprise.
It has been pointed out that the Temiar depend almost entirely on
their plantations and their immediate jungle environment for the
necessities of life. Two staple commodities which they do import are
iron and salt. They possess a most primitive type of forge, and
if they procure scrap iron and nails, can fashion arrow-heads
and spear-heads: they are however in the habit of obtaining ready-
made "parangs" and chains for their casting nets, the net of which
they contrive themselves fmm home grown line. Brass wire, too,
is sought after both as spiral bracelets for men and women and also.
with a little shaping, for fish-hooks.
Salt is the commodity they most covet from outside, for salt,
and chilis which they grow themselves, are the main seasonings for
their food. Strings of small beads of various colours which hail from
Europe are a conspicuous feature of their personal decoration and are
also embroidered onto cloth in fanciful designs to make belts,
necklets, fillets for the hair and so forth. The two chief distributing
centres for these beads are Kuala Lipis and Kuala Kangsar. So
universal are they that sh'inp:s of beads perform many of the (unc-
tions of a currency medium, and other commodities such as fowls
and goats are reckoned on a bead basis.
At present these commodities are procured through three
channels: a certain amount of private wealth is available by private
effort in extra-ladang pursuits, working as fellers or carriers, or by
sale of handicrafts, and fowls and goats, which are reared by most
groups, to Chinese at road-head. This is a comparatively recent
Journ. F. M. S Mus. - Vol. XIX.
Plate XII.
I
I
_ ....J
0
Z
..J

0::
I
0

0..
0::



0
..J
W LU
l- I-
:::J
..J
:::J
1936] Contacts 47
source of wealth: and is spent in purchasing articles of novelty at
various shops in Kuala Lipis, Sungei Siput, Kuala Kangsar, Tanjong
Rambutan, Gua Musang or Bertam or Tanah Rata, according to the
locality.. The expeditions of the Perak Museum are also instrumental
in circulating wealth on a wide front. Even to this day the outside
wants of the Temiar are largely supplied by Chinese traders and
pedlers, who tap their jungle produce, and the exchange is organised
not with the medium of currency but by the process of direct barter.
There is however 3. third source of these commodities and it is
certainly the oldest. Certain chief.>, recognised by th8 aborigines,
named Mikong or Pangku have been mentioned previously, who serve
as intermediaries between the aborigines and the outside world-
mainly Malay. The annual gifts of articles such as salt, parangs and
sarongs by the Mikong or Pangku are part of the reciprocal relations
between these personages and the aborigines. The distribu-
tion of them was insisted on as part of the pact and was undoubtedly
the (;hief motive behind the aboriginal support of it. It was organised
through the agency of the various aboriginal chiefs, and each distri
outed the goons to his own group upriver.
The articles collected by the Temiar for export are largely tappec
by the system of barter associated with the ubiquitous Chinese trader
The trader himself either has a 'kedai' at road-head, as at Jalong
or Lasah on the Plus road; or else settles up river on an accessiblE.
site, as Apok at Kuala Jindera in the Ulu Nenggiri. The principle
of the Chinese is deliberately to fix all imaginary debt on each group
by considerahle gifts of cloth and implements. The game once op':3ned
by this gambit the Temiar, no matter how much rotan he bring
in, is always reckoned to be still in debt: this is worked by attaching
an entirely unjust value on the goods supplied. The Chinese argument
is that this exorbitance is merely interest on the outstanding debt.
but since the debt is an indisp8nsable factor in his trading system
one can hardly blame the Temiar for replying with their own peculiar
tactics.
Actually the Chinese does not have it all his own way: on the
Temiar side there is studied delay. The Chinese bestows his "gifts"
on the Temiar and tells him that pavment is not necessary at once;
It may be deferred. The Temiar takes him at his word and in the
nature of the case whole payment is continually deferred. Thec.'retic-
ally, the Chinese makes out his phoa to be pitied. in practice his profit
is cOI1l;iderable: and the Chinese finds his debtors periodic lodgers
for whom he has to furnish hospitality. (founded on the pattern of
the hospitality expected from the tribally-recognised Mikong or
To'Pangku). .
There i'l, for the Tpmiar, always a safety-valve. If the Chir.ese
"squeezes" too blatantly he finds his house burned down one night and
many of his valuables destroyeo.
These trading methods are insidious and subversive and a few
years ago on the Plus the District Officer put a stop to one beat of
this kind. The trading bases are indeed nearly always accessible
to supervision and should be brought under systematic control.
Journal of the F.M.S. Museums [VOL. XIX,
The chief jungle produce exported by the Temiar in this way
is rotan, and in their territory they are the main source of this
commodity and therefore of a considerable portion of the Forest
revenue .. Atap is also collected and prepared by them for the
kampong Malays for instance at Lasah on the Plus: if this is also
taxed by the Department the Malays will go out and cut it
themselves, and a routine ::;ourC-2 of outside wealth will be taken out
of Temiar hands. Jungle fruits in season, such as langsat, tampoi,
setar, prah, are also collected and sold down-river.
Another source of profit is the sale of aboriginal handicrafts,
chiefly blowpipes and quivers. The profits however go mainly to the
Sumatran pedlers who visit an accessible settlement, purch'1se a
blowpipe for a dollar or two, and sell it for five in the towns. Some
groups bring their produce direct into the towns, individuais
from the isolated settlements on the Kledang range (Sungei Chermin)
being regular pedlars in Sungei Siput and Kuala Kangsar, and even
walking as far north as Taiping. Groups from the Kinta are
frequently met with parading their wares quite unselfconsciously in
the crowded streets of Ipoh. Near Tanjong Rambutan there is
indeed a regular aboriginal factory which supplies blowpipes, ouivers
and other what -nots: their "Birmingham" Ir.ethods are not yet
however beyond reproach, and they often offer blowpipes for sale,
the barrels of which are still green. Temiar handicrafts in the form
of plaited bags of various designs lire actually most attractive and
surprisingly delicate and smooth in workmanshiD. The coloured
patterns, especially in the Ulu Nenggiri are not without subtle origi-
nality and here is a form of export barely exploited but well worth "-
little cultivating. A good centre for such a display of wares would
be Cameron Highlands: but probably a fair test of their acceptability
would be a representative display at a forthcoming Agricultural Show
in Kuala Lumpur.
Another form of commerce indulged in by the Temiar is asso:-:iated
with the To'Pangku or other tribally recognised intermediary. An
example of this is the tin-washing carried on by Temiar groups in
the U1u Plus. The quota is held by the To'Pangku at Lasah to whom
the various chiefs bring the it allows for the sale of five piculs
everv three months. This negotiation is easily open to supervision,
and in my own opinion is not above needing some, for the To'Pangku
handles the sale of the tin and the distribution of the profits are in
his hands. Another economic scheme in which the Temiar co-operate
is the tapping of jelutong especially in the U1u Nenggiri, Kelantan.
The Chinese kong-sis established there rely upon the aborigines for
the location of the trees, for transport and other assistance. The
Chinese method of jelutong tapping, based on the usual principle of
the greatest profit in the shortest time, is killing most of the jelutong
trees in this area, and many unlicensed groups are assisting in this.
Yet when the Temiar t2.p jelutong, the trees live, and there is every-
thing in favour of forbidding the Chinese work and organising' the
Temiar to tap the jelutong throul<h the cQ-operation of their Mikong
at Kuala Betis.
1936]
Contacts
49
One the most interesting examples of Temiar enterprise is
the pursuIt of elephant driver or "gembala" at Jalong and Kuala
in Perak.. The Temiar there tend the tame elephants of
varIOus Malay chiefs and these are used for porterage on various
occaSions. and also fo: It has been found that they
are for bnngll1g out tImber, and this might be developed,
thp.lr gembalas affirm that such work damages them. These
gembalas have been personally testified as having far more control
over these beasts than similar mahouts in India, and there is no doubt
of their superiority over the Patani gembalas around Grik and
Temengor.
These same Temiar groups at Jalong and down the Korbu supply
the corps for the elephant control on the Plus, now organise<l. by
Mr. F. J. Davy, which saves a formerly annual recurrent damage to
European rubber of 1,000. They receive regular salaries for this
live in small family houses and have adopted a mode of life which
though it lacks the religious element, is superficially indistinguishable
from that of the neighbouring Malays.
The Jalong group is at present busy hoeing a new piece of
groun? to pla'!t up fresh kampong. The Temiar chief. Ngah Bintang.
has Chmese labourers to assist with this development, so the
can now step forward as capital employing foreign labour.
IS not, from the long view, a solid advance, but is the kind of
thmg that popular economic "thought" would appraise as a sign of
" progress."
We now proceed to survey the actual and potential value of the
Temiar as a source of labour.
The foremost field is that of carriage and transport: in their
own I .have found these people second to none as porters, and
my Opl!1lOn IS shared by most who have come into contact with them.
Most expeditions rely on them to move from one place to another and
consequently we see topographical, mineralogical and other scie;tific
exploration. furthered by their co-operation. It may not be inoppor-
tune to POl'!t out here that all the pioneering work in opening up
H.lghlands. depended upon the Temiar Senoi and mostly
Semal Senol as carners, and later for felling clearings on alienated
land. Insofar as the exploitation of any area depends firstly on its
mapping, it is true that the hill people themselves are responsible as
guides to dominant features and also as reference for the correct
,!aming. of rivers and hills: and Senoi place-names, are preferable to
Improvised one-s.
2
Moreover the network of aboriginal paths and
settlements such as they are, at least are outposts to fall back on in
otherwise untamed bush.
As guides, the Temiar are at the disposal of travellers of all
kinds whether nature lovers, fishermen or big-game hunters. Their
value to the police as guides arid trackers has been demonstrated
again and again; their co-operation is essential in apprehending
escaped criminals, gang-robbers or tin-stealers.
I At the bathing pool and water-slide near Kuala Kangsar.
There is "Gunong Warapu" in the l'lu Telom, but only the Temiar know
Its name.
50 Jou.-mal of the F.M.S. Mu.se1Jms
[VOL. XIX,
They are exceedingly expert navigators on their swift-moving
rivers, steering their rafts through the rapids with unerring skill.
Travellers find them safer than Malays on the Nenggiri, and it seems
a paradox to point out that immediate danger at the head of a rapid
does not find them boasting and then throwing offerings to pre-
Mohammedan deities: in colttrast to the Malay, they recognise that
success lies with the e.ificient body and not with animistic mediation.
Besides conveying the- tin downstream in large prahus, the Temiar on
the Prias pole their large prahus upstream from Bertam on the
Nenggiri for the Chinese tin miners near Kuala Panes. The lower
Prias is one long stretch of rapids and they negotiate these with
great skill. Twice a year the Temiar of the Jindera take large rafts
loaded with rotan down as far as Kota Bahru; a journey which takes
six days.
The possibility of the Temiar developing in time something
more than a merely temporary labour force on Cameron Highlands is
worth consideration. Most of the aboriginals employed as casual
labourers are Semai and they have not always been found to be
satisfactory. A contract for felling newly alienated land is performed
satisfactorily enough, but the retention of a permanent labour force
on an estate is another matter. One estate in the Diu Telom has
kept the services of a Semai group for odd jobs a considerable
time. Mr John Irving has however employed Temlar for more com-
plicated purposes than felling with some success and his experience
is worth recording.!
Three facts, it seems to me, have to be reckoned with in
attempting to employ Temiar labour. The first and
point is that the co-operative motive of their own mIlitates
against the easy precipitation of individual effort WhICh modern
economics finds essential. Work is organised in their own culture
on a group basis and the motives are group motives. Moreover at
certain seasons the local unit needs every piece of man-power for the
cultivation of the ladang, aml this explains the annoying tendency of
the Senoi, Temiar or Semai, to drift away. There is further a curious
trait in the Senoi temperament, that to commit oneself for a long
period ahead to employment is felt as a sacrifice of persona.!
freedom.
It would seem therefore that the best plan would be for one
estate to remain in touch with a particular group; each individual
family would alternate with others in working on its ladang and
in working for a wage on the estate. The group sentiment would be
maintained, and the permanence of work greatly assured if the
estate would urge the group to build their own extended house on a
small patch of ground and not just leave them to live in the "pondoks"
which in their own culture are associated with the brief occupation
of a few when on a hunting trek. In course of time certain
individuals may prefer living on the estate to living on their
- - 1 Mr. Irving writes to me as follows:-"Had it not been for the good work
done by the "orang Bukit" Blue Valley Estate would not have been opened up so
quickly and cheaply. I had three hundred or more in gangs; an alternative to
Chinese labour on the with its high prices,
1936J
Cont-acts
51
Secondly, the Temiar prefers to deal direct with the white man
and not through the medium of a Malay or Chinese mandor who
nearly always tries to cheat the aborigine in the traditional wa .
When the Senoi find this out they abandon the new pursuit and
own i.nvestigations me that the uncertain, unp;edictable
behaVIOur of the Senol when in employment is not so arbitrary as it
is assumed to be.
The third point is that Temiar and Semai do not work weI!
together, and are better recruited separately. The attempt to mix
the two has more than once led to the desertion of some or all.
. As a result of this survey we find that the Temiar at any rate
IS not doomed to be the economic failure that the aborigine is
ulliversally assumed to be. He co-operates in several commercial
propositions which are associated with the theme of "progress," in
spite of the fact that he is left to take care of himself and usuallv
lives beyond the protection of the Government. .
It is only necessary to study the complex pattern of one of
the fish drive with a fruit-stupefiant (tuba buah)
III which hundreds of Temiar from groups distributed over a whole-
river valley are organised in a series of activities which involve
collection of the fruit, construction of dams and the final race down
river at dawn on the Mth day, to realise that the power of the
co-operative motive in their extended familv groupings is available
to be- tuned to face the wider and more complex activities associated
with a share in the general economic system of the country.
A scheme which set out to develop the interests of the Temiar
in any river valley should be based on the co-operative pattern inherent
in their cultural endowment. A "co-operative trading station" coulrl
be associated with the accessible "Pattern Settlement" here proposed
at the border of each valley, and thus the undue profits which are
eaten up by unscrupulous alien traders would accrue to the Govern-
ment and go partly towards a fur.d to support the expenses, small as
they would be, of such a scheme of aboriginal welfare.
Once again we find the amount of effort it is proposed should be
made for the Aborigines "canalised" towards the accessible site of
the Pattem Settlement. It only remains to give concrete shape to
these considerations which have accumulated from the varied
approaches we have made to the problem and see how the scheme
would work when applied to a particular area.
Culture Contact.
Contact and miscegenation affect mostly the downriver groups,
and the hill stock are for the most part affected only indirectly
through intermarriage. The Negrito Bomads, the kampong Malays
and isolated kongsis of Chinese, who are also to be found among the
hill groups, are the elements concerned in the contacts but the
problem of Hill stations, Moslemisation and Christian mi;sions will
also be considered,
52 Jow'nal 0/ the F.M.S. Museums {VOL. XIX,
The Negrito Contact.
A glance at the map reveals the fact that the Negrito tribes
surround the Ple-Temiar like a drawn bow. This is because they are
a people of the lowland jungle. and only the Jahai north of Noring,
who may possibly contain racial strains differing from the other
Negrito peoples, straddle across the Main Range where the passes are
low. The Negrito nomads serve, in short, to insulate the hill culture
from the kampong culture of the "orang Melayu" ; with that kampong
culture, as Schebesta has pointed out, most of the surviving Negrito
groups live in economic symbiosi3. Where these Negrito groups
march with the Ple-Temiar, much intermarriage has taken place, and
hence the already heterogeneous border groups carry a large per-
centage of Negrito admixture. The children of a mixed marriage
customariiy join the group of the mother: thus hill types are often
to be seen among the predominantly Negrito groups.
The .Tahai have their haunts north of Kampong Temengor and
the lower Sara, and they also stretch over into the UIu Pergau,
Kelantan. Intermarriage among the hill groups in the Lower
Temengor and UIu Sengoh involves therefore Jahai blood. But
from Kuala Temengor south down the Perak River to Kuala Plus
roam a Reries of Negrito groups called Lanoh by the hill people and
"Sakai jeram" by the Malays. people have been recorded as
speaking a "northern Senoi" -<i.e. Ple-Temiar) dialect, but in actual
fact each small group encountered, even numbering only twenty souls,
possesses a vocabulary markedly different from its neighbours and
these vary largely in terms of the proportion of Temiar elements in
their service of words . . I believe Lanoh complex to be in reality
the remnants of a series of different tribes whose ancf'stors were
more numerous and ranged further afield both towards the sea and
southwards among the foot-hills. For although at the present time
no independent Neg-rito groups exist south of the Plus on the west
side of the peninsula, yet traces of Negrito absorption oCCur among
the plains Spmai to the south even of Kampar.
On the east side these Negrito nomads, usually termed "orang
belukar" or "orang liar" or more opprobiou-sly "Pangan" by the local
Malays, range far south the Pahang River and in Kelantan
the Menri tribe come into contact with the Temiar on the Lower
Nenggiri. Apart from the modifications in Temiar breed arising
from Negrito admixture, these contacts seem to have influenced Ple-
Temiar re!igiot; s heliefs especially in the north, for the Negritos
possess a more notion of deity and the border hill groups, for
instance in Temengor. recognise "Kar-ei" the Negrito thunder-God,
whilst the bulk of the Temiar population further south do not.
Com'ersely, many Negrito groups who are linked by intermarriage
with the hill people, in Ulu Stong for example, tend to settle down
into "ladang" cultivation.
Chinese Contact.
Chinese in contact with the Ple-1'emiar may be aligned in three
There are firstly the few isolated individuals who have
settled down with a remote hill group and planted up a vegetable
Journ. F. M. S. Mus. - Vol. XIX.
Plate XIII.
Two T emiar girls (Hill stock).
The grip on the blow.pipe.
1936] Contacts
garden. These Chinese fit peacefully into the Temiar organisation
and on. the whole their influence is for the good. The other type of
isolated Chinese is of course the fugitive from justice, about the
effects of whose presence no comment is necessary.
The second class are the traders who either set up shop at road
head (as at Lasah and Jalong) or else settle at a base upriver (as at
Kuala Jindera, Kelantan) and tap thE' Temiar jungle produce. These
people have been considered under the aspect of "trade and
enterprise." Here it is only necessary to point out that their methods
are fundamentally to get the aborigines into debt which ultimately
forces the latter to retaliate by violence. This is the kind of culture
contact whieh deliberately sets out to introduce the aborigine to
modern economics in a way which is calculated to undermine his
chances of some day taking a normal share in an economic system.
Moreover, these Chinese traders are not indispensable: the Temiar
can and does by other channels circulate his jungle produce without
them (e.g. tin in the Ulu Plus). One or two, such as the one at
Jalong road-head. are more just; but all need supervision.
Into the third class must be placed those kongsis of Chinese,
often of numerous personnel, who work tin or jelutong, some with and
many without a license. There is continual friction between these
kongsis and the Temiar. Trouble nearly always arises from the
attempted seizure of the Terniar women. is a Malay saying
current in the kampongs along the Nenggiri that "the Chinese goes
in with a license for jelutong, then starts tin stealing and then
woman-stealing: then he leaves hurriedly." If he leaves at all.
Years ago such a kongsi was bound by rotans in their hut and only
saved from starvation by police who had been warned by a Pangku
at Lasah .. Only recently a jelutong kongsi on the Perlob, a tributary
of the Betis, one of whose number had given a Temiar the chance of
handing over his wife or being stabbed with a tapping-knife, was
surrounded by a number of Temiar, who were persuaded to disperse
by the Mikong and some police, so letting the Chinese escape. These
Chinese were tried and imprisoned, and shortly after emerging, the
guilty one died. It is only the of the Dato' Mikong at Kuala
Betis which prevent murder of these Chinese in the Ulu Brok and
Ulu Betis. He is greatly respected by the hill people and with
their interests at heart he has convinced them that it is better to
hand over the offenders to justice, rather than take the law into their
own hands. For certain reasons, which it is unnecessary to parade
here, the Temiar on the Prias and Jindera are no longer associated
with the Mikong, and Chinese who violate these groups are frequently
killed. Now tin mines are opening up in the Ulu Prias, and unless
something is done. judging from my own experiences up the Prias
and Jindera within a year of publishing these words, there will
be serious trouble. I was told the Chinese up the Jindera (at Saba)
were behaving themselves at present. I asked why: I was informed
that the last offender had been summarily killed.
There is not even the economic argument in favour of allowing
the Chinese ,ielutong tappers to exploit, since it can be proved very
54 Journal of the F M.S. Museums
[VOL. XIX,
easily that they are killing'the trees daily" whilst the 'l'emiar methods
of tapping do not have this result. .
As for working tin, for every Chinese with a license there are
two without, and the Temiar could easily ' be used for
these tin stealers and gold stealers, as indeed they are employed on
the Larek :n Vlu Korbu.
Contact with" Orang Milayu."
The kampong folk who ar:) the immediate neighbours of the
Temiar are mostly the descendants, on one side at any rate, of the hill
people. It is was not so much a process of individuals who would
"masok but rather that these settlements had their origin in
the arrival of stranger Malays who married hill women and whose des-
cendants would be brought up as Malays. Traces of Senoi breed are
still very strong among th2 kampongs as far west as Ku.ala Kangsar.
Kampongs such as Lasah and Lintang are of predominantly Temiar
Grigin, as genealogical analysis and anthropometric observations
clearlv shew. Lasah was founded by Rembau Malays who settled
among the Temiar and to this day their kinshi'p to hill groups
is known in each individual case, and the appropriate relationship
term used when they meet their hill relatives. Th2 former Malay
Penghulu of Lintang was a younger brother of the old Temiar
chieftain, To' Panglima of Kuala Korbu, who died only the
day. To' Pangku, Alang Vntong, was a Moslemised Temiar and his
influence OVEr the groups in the headwaters of the Plus was based
on his kinship status to the local headmen. Just before he died he
was poled up to Kuala Korbu to receive the. ministrations of
l'emiar medicine men: the" malongs " or magical poles covered With
compelling d-esigns which were used on that occasion to w'lrd off tJ-:e
fatal sirkness are now in the Perak Museum. All Lasah folk
rigorously observe a tabu on the flesh of the "kijang" or
barking deer, which is not a Mohammedan but a Temiar observanc2.
It is worth emphasising that in so far as the more aneient types
of man called here " the older strata" are predominant' among the
bord-er Ple-Temiar, this historical process of absorption has involved
their intrusion, and to a less extent the high'2r physical type of the
hill stock, into the Peninsular Malay breed in these areas. Even. as
long ago as 1905 Annandale pointed out the occurrenC2 of Austrahod
types among the Perak Malays. These types are under-
going a gradual recession owing to recent mtermarrIages With new
Malayan arrivals from Sumatra. The. expression" Peninsular Malay"
means less than it did in the time of Wilkinson.
The isolated Malay kampongs along the Nenggiri from Kuala
Betis till just. above Bertam are of similar origin, though "older strata:'
elements are not so formidable on the east. in Perak .. The
tional stories of Malay persecutions of abongll1es seems Inc?mpattble
with this state of affairs: and yet they occurred, and unlike othl!r
jungle folk the Temiar also The form slavery based
on debt which was a characteristIc of Malay SOCI'2ty qefore
British intervention in Perak and which placed the debtor in a certalO
relationship labelled "hamba sahya" affected aborigine and Malay
1936] Contacts 55
alike. It is this institution which has carried S-enoi blood further
afield than actual contact on the borders would explain.
For centuries, howev-er, Perak and other states were full of mar-
auding bands who carried people oft and sold them into slavery.
In many cases these adventurers werE: Sumatrans, \,-2ry often Mentii-
lings, and they dealt with Peninsular Malays and aborigines alike.
The Malay chiefs down the Perak River used also to organise raids
among the aborigines, but their henchmen again were not from the
neighbouring kampongs, but strangers from further afield. The hill
people however, according to testimony, not only of the Kelantan
Malays, such as the Dato' Pengawai Nenggiri of Bertam, but also
of the Temengor Malays on th2 Perak side, used to retaliate by
raiding in their turn the Malay kampongs far down liver. For these
raids they used not their blowpipes, but bows and arrows. A favou-
I'ite form of attack was to shoot arrows on which were fire brands
into the roofs of the Malay houses, and they did much damage in
this way. It is still possible to see the primitive forges at work in
which the iron arrow-heads were fashioned among the hills.
In 1810, when the Patani men invaded Upper Perak to found the
kampongs such as T2mengor, it was the hilI people who defended the
passage by constructing earth forts at Kuala Banun, behind which
the archers shot down the elephant of their chief, Mengkong Jamal.
According to the Malays the first Mikong of Temengor learnt the
magic of the hill people and only was Kampong Temengorsafe.
Even as late as 1907 mor20ver, the anthropologist, Annandale found
no Malav would venture up into the hills to fetch the Temiar for
inspection, and he had to rely on Chinese Today no Malay
will dare such a journey unless he has with him a Moslemised relative
of the hill people. Yet this ar3a. is earmarked as Malay Reserva-
tion on the state map of Perak.
Soon after the British intervention in Perak the Mil.lay RajJiS
bribed the then Pangku of Lasah to capture Temiar in the Plus to
be sold into slavery. The Pangku tricked the Penghulu Ladang down
to Lasah but the former was warned by To' Stia the Temiar ch:ef
on the Korbu (later given a " kuasa" by Sir Hugh Clifford in the
time of Sult.an [dris) and escaped under cover of night. The Malays
followed and corning up with the fugitives just below Kuala Temor
murdered the Penghulu Ladang and threw his body in tll-e river.
His wife and children managed to escape, with the aid of To' Stia
\v ho conducted them to Sir Hugh Low, then resident at Batu Gajah.
The Pangku was and executed at .Taiping. The
tell a different story. The Temiar, they say, killed a goat and pomted
to the blood as witness of a crime, the victim of which went into
hiding, thereby getting rid of Pangku by a trick. In any case,
whichever story is correct, the Temiar resentment of. a Pangku who
did not abide by the pact is demonstrated: and the delll1quent Pangku
was certainly hanged.
At present, the relations between the and the hill
nave an institutional basis. for the To' Mlkongs of the Nengg.n
and the Temengor and the Pangku of the Plus and Korbu are their
chosen intermediaries with whom a definite pact is existing. As
has been pointed out in the brief summary of Temiar the
56 Journal oj the F.M.S. Museum.s
[VOL. XIX,
Mikongs are of onglJ1,. the of whom married hill
women: the Pangku IS also of hill onglJ1. In return for their media-
tion the Mikong or Pangku is expected to provide the Temiar with
annual of parangs and cloth, and to offer hospitality to
any Temlar who VISit the kampong. At Kuala Betis, for instance
the Malays are probably more in awe of the Mikong than are
care-free hill folk.
Temiar living on the borders adjacent to the Malays, or as on
the Nenggiri, in among the occasional Malay kampongs, tend to
adopt the separate family houses in place of the long extended familv
house; but both alike practise dry cultivation. .
The previous survey o.f the relations between the Ple-Temiar and
the Malays has shewn that the intrusion of Senoi elements among
the 'orang melayu' has been mainly through descent from the female
side. Individual cases of "masok melayu" have also occurred and
still occur: usually following adoption and rearing of young Temiar
boys. Mohammedanisation, however, when it means mass conversion
is quite another matter. After four years residence among
hill folk I cannot but be impressed by a formidable inertia, at times
a violent antipathy against becoming "Malays," and it is unlikely
that by peaceful methods the bulk of the Ple-Temiar will "masok
meiayu:"But there . will always be a gradual process of infiltration of
individuals into the Mohammedan faith.
From the point of view of both Malay and T-emiar, of course,
the change over means above all a change In the mode of life: rituaJ
cleanliness, food tabus, a change in the status of women folk a
prescribed code of dress and daily manners. All these
are however to be observed widely among the Temiar groups living
adjacent to Malay kampongs, especially on the Nenggiri in Kelantal1_
The sharp division into the dry and wet cultivation so emphasised bv
Wilkinson by no means exists, especially in Kelantan, and only
cently in Perak (Lasah). This phenomenon, this equation ot the
mode of life seems to me to be a potent factor, rather unexpectedly,
against the tendency for group enuy into Islam. For there is deep-
seated aversion to underg01l1g the initiatory rite of Islam among
most Temiars. And while some persons may take .the step of their
own free will, their own brothers and sisters will most rigidly refuse
to follow them from my own first hand Indeed the fun-
damental cultural factor against conversion is this very solidarity
and kindred loyalty bred in the extended family, the main economic
and local unit of Temiar social organisation. This is what the Malay
chieftains away in the big towns do not seem to understand when
they try to persuade Temiar headmen to "leave their jungle" and
become Mohammedans: they fail to realise that there are strong
bonds of kinship and loyalty to the group among these pagans. So
strong indeed, that some individuals who do leave their groups and
settle down as Malays in down river kampongs, return again to their
family roof and revert to paganism because of the malice that they
find among the Malays.
This brings us to the fact that the process of mass conversion
to Islam can only work through the depopulation of the hills. When
i93Gj Contacts 57
as isolated group begged a Malay Ruler for assistance in making
bendang a year or two ago, He agreed to do so " If they would leave
their jungles and come and settle down in the kamponrrs as Malays ."
This they refused to do. We have merely arrived at a corollary of
oui first statement, that the bulk of the Temiar pOllulation will not
readily become Malays. From this point of view the appropriation
on the state map of Perak of a large area! of highland country,
climatically unsuitable for the orang melayu, as 'Malay Reservation'
can only refer to a mental reservation on the part of the real inhabi-
tants against l:-ecoming Malays.
What is said above must in no way be taken as an argument
against the group-preserving effects of the Mohammedan faith. The
only hope of survival of small isolated aboriginal communities else-
where in Malaya is by absorption into Mohammedanism. A student
of populati<.'n problems h!l,s contrasted the rapid decline of the
Oceanic peoples in the Pacific when faced by Western civilisation,
with the undoubted ability of the Indonesian peoples, such as
Javanese Buginese and Malays to survive this culture contact. I
believe that the reason lies not in some obscure biological mechanism
in the race but in the fact that Mohammedanism is a stiffener,
a factor of' survival-value. The convert to Mohammedanism, even
if he is at first dismayed as the Temiar apparently may be, by the
wide differences in famdy sympathies, should he persist, does at
least find common citizenship with the new community. But we
are here concerned with the facts of the process of conversion, and
one cannot change human nature overnight.
Ch rist'ian Missions.
An alternative has comparatively recently appeared among
Senoi in the shape of Christian missions.
2
At present these
missions have only attacked the Semai Senoi, two Methodist statiolls
having been established in the Batang Padang, one of which was
formerly at Kuala Bcrtam in the Ulu Telom, Pahang, which is actually
on the southern boundary of Temiar distribution. Both missionaries
are Battaks.
If the case for these missions was restricted to purely ethical
considerations, it is worth noting that the brotherly nature of
Senoi ethos is close to the spirit of primitive Christianity,
though it may lack the central revelation, and the pagan Senoi i;
already more a Christian than he is Mohammedan, except where
long contact has tended to make him adopt the Malay mode of life,
that is to say on the borders. There is however no urgent need Oil
purely mural grounds to tamper with true Senoi culture. That
culture reveals itself as spiritually competent to deal with the natu-
ral environment to which the society has to make adjustments. No
subversive traits such as head-hunting, cannibalism, widow-immo-
!ation, or child betrothal which may be abhorrent to western mimis,
mars the simple picture of a people whose duty towards God is their
duty towardR their neighbour. .
I have visited both these missions, and was impressed by the
sincerity and wide sympathies of both Battaks. They are fully
I Ulu Temengor and Ulu Sengoh.
2 Father Borie's Mission was establis hed among the Mantra, a Jakun trib(;
of Malacca. .
58 Journal of the F .M.S. Museums [VOL. XIX,
aware that more permanent local settlements and iJ.tensive cultiva-
tion are essc>ntial among the Semai before the process of conversion
can proceed.
The problem, however, must also be considered from the mate-
rial point of view, and we must make survival-value the test of conver-
sion. There is no doubt that unless the whole programme of missionary
activity among the aborigil.es is rationalised, that activity may de-
feat its own ends. The only hope of survival of small isolated
aboriginal groups is absorption into the Malay community: the
introduction of another faith in these instances would be actually
suhversive. In the case of large intact aboriginal areas such as the
Senoi, insofar as the border groups tend to adopt the Malay mode I)f
life and a small but continuous process of "masok melayu" is
observable, these border groups should not be interfered with by
Christian missions.
There is however little likelihood of the widely scattered and
inacces"ible groups in the headwaters of the rivers in a large intact
aboriginal territory such as the Temiar becoming Malayised,
and missionary activity among the hill groups can in no
way be regarded as opposed to Malayisation, for it has been pointed
out previously that complete Malayisation can only proceed by d-
population of the hills. If these groups can be left undisturbed no
missiorory activity is warranted, on the criterion of survival value.
But there are indications that non-Malay enterprise of hill stations,
or the non-Malay exploitation of hill deposits of minerals, as in Ulu
Nenggiri, KP.!antan, is going to throw some of these groups into con-
tact. A constructive programme of aboriginal consolidation will
therefore be necessary. But there should be no toleration of Chris-
tian missions which merely create small groups cut off from thp
cultural life of the:r neighbours, for these groups have !e3s survival
value than they had in their original state. The Go\'ernment sholild
be satisfied that a solid community is going to emerge, for
the Senoi will not be welcomed as a brother by hi"
white fellow Christians in Malaya, whilst a Moslemised Senoi call
settle down as a full member of the Malay community. Sporadic mis-
sions established by different Christian sects should not- therefore
be encouraged, for the vital factor of solidarity will. be sacrificed.
European settlement of HiU stations.
The co-operation of the Senoi in opening up Cameron Highlands
has been emphasised elsewhere; the problems of Senoi labour on
estates and the effect of Senoi on the Highland wild life have also
been discussed. The only aspect remaining for discussion from the
point of vie,v of culture contact are the repercussions on land tenure
of the EUrl'pean settlement of the Highlands.
It can be said at once that the opening up of Tanah Rata and
Bintang, usually termed the Residential area, has not involved any
evacuation of Senoi groups at all. There remain the Lower High-
lands centn!d on Renglet, and the Upper Highlands proper, which
comprise the headwaters of the Ulu Telom. The Lower Highlands
are in Sem'li country, whilst the Ulu Telom has been a kind of " no
man's land" between the two tribes, though it is surrounded both i:i
Journ. F. M. S. Mus. - Vol. XIX.
Plate XIV.
Ulu Betls, Kelantan.
Ulu Plus, Perak.
Two Temiar (Hill stock) shewing convexity 01 nasal bridge.
Temiar raltsman with lish-spear.
Front view 01 above.
Contacts 59
Perak (VIu Kinta), Kelantan (DIu Brok) and downstream the Telom
itself by \C:!lliar country.
As alienation spreads down the Bertam, it can only lead to the
evacuation of certain Semai groups. The Senoi system of
land t2nure does not allow a group to wander at will and
make new clearings where it will: there is a clearly defined
orbit of jungle outside which it cannot settle without in-
fringing the rights of another group. Under these circumstances
there is no warrant for the <).ssumption that the Senoi shift indis-
Icriminately from year to year and therefore can be mov'2d out at
any time ar.d left to fend for themselves. The Government decided
on three areas along the Bertam, one of which is up the Mensun,
as "Sakai Reservations" but while this may ensure the welfare of
the groups in those areas, it does not dispose of the other groups
elsewhere who may have to shift. I doubt if any hardships have
resulted as yet in the Lower Highlands; but the general policy
seems to be to leave the Semai local groups in occupation of their
land until it is alienated, and there seems to be no guarantee that
the Reservations now constituted have any permanance: I do not
believe they have been gazetted. The system of compensation
even, which is probably arbitrary, is in my opinion a bad expedient.
The whole question needs rationalisation. One fact which I
can demonstrate from personal experience of the feelings of the
Senoi is that uncertainty as to their future is the vital disruptive
factor. In some strange way this disturbed state affects imme-
diately their fertility and comparative statistics shew that infant
mortality increases; more obtrusively some groups, not knowing
what to-morrow may bring, cease to plant up fresh ladangs; interest
in life gives way to apathy. When the District Office in Kuala Lipis
approached me for my co-operation, I proposed therefore for the
C1u Telom, which had not yet been alienated, to effect a complete'
withdrawal of groups living within the area of possible development.
With my knowledge of the kinship bonds relating certain groups,
I recommended two solid Reservations. one south of the Telom for
the Semai and one to the north for the'Temiar. These Reservations
would serve a double. purpose; they would define from the point
of view of the hilI people the limit of alienation, and they would
create representatives holding kuasa with whom the local District
Office could deal. The District Office had already decided that tbe
3,500 foot contour could be taken as the limit below which Highland
Agriculture would not for some time want to spread. The District
Officer was also mindful of maintaining accessible labour for felling
the new estates. By describing the territories sanctioned for their
occupation in terms of the drainage areas of the tributaries of the
Telom the hill people in the Telom are now aware that if for the
present they make clearings further upstream they do so at their
own risk. Whereas, positively, they know that no strangers may
settle in the territory in which their rights are acknowledged.
There is no question now of any hardship having resulted from t h ~
European settlement of the DIu Telom, and above all the Temiar
groups on the Rening have no anxieties for the future and are
among the most virile groups that I have encountered along the
Journal of the F.M.S. Museums [VOL. X1X.
main range. There are signs that in the. estates may be a
source of more than temporary remuneratIOn Just for the period
of felling; :md the advantages do not end there. As a result .of
assisting in planting up these areas. there follows a .defil1lte
improvement in methodf' of cultivatIOn back on. their own
ladangs, both on the Rening and over on th.e Blatop In Ulu Brok,
Kelantan. I have already indicated in my brief
of Temiar culture how small plots around the mam. plantatIOn o.
staple crops owned and worked by the extended as a whole,
are owned by the individual families and are planted with accessory
foodstuffs such as papaya. The main clearing is a matter of
tapioca hill padi maize or millet sown in among the half charred
logs or' the felled trees. But recently the individual family plots;
are carefully .hoed and the soil prepared as they have to do
on the estates in order to the new vegetables which they
have brought back from the Europeans. "
All this is going to facilitate the of ."five fie!d
with its permanent occupation of one site wh!ch I thll1k IS Just as
ur ent around Cameron Highlands as along those border arel!-s such
as gr have described on the Plus and The Semal along
the Bertam will soon be settled on the same lInes. as the Telom.
The establishment of a Pattern with five-fiel.d System
of cultivation in the Ulu Telom below Kuala Klal, would provide a per-
a ent force of Temiar who could be relied upon to supply wardens
'; nth t out Real hill people in their native dress of mengkuang and
e a: "ghillies" would form an attraction fishermen,
d nobody would be fitter to act as gUIdes allng the river.
an A Co-operative Trading Station which bought jungle and
aboriginal handicrafts in exchange for parangs, salt, b.rass-wlre and
ther suitable commodities would carry immenf'e survival value
o who are increasinrr fast enough to need some economic
oon In with the Pattern Settlement, the
a en IOn s. d Stat ld
Aboriginal Co-operative Agent who the Tra Il1g IOn cou
supervise the ghillies for the trout-fishll1g.
1936] Proposed Aboriginal Policy
PART IV.
PROPOSED ABORIGINAL POLICY.
An Examination of the Present Circumstances
Affecting the Status of the Ple-Temiar SelJoi.
61
Up to the present time there has existed no coherent policy
towards the pagan tribes of Malaya.
The State Governments of both Perak and Kelantan have now
expressed their willingness to adopt concrete proposals for protecting
the interests of the PIe-Temiar Senoi. It is sometimes held that the
aborigines are the dependents of the "Malays"; this notion follows on
the indiscriminate use of the term "Sakai" with its implication of
"dependents." "Sakai" is the eauivalent of various other names given
throughout South-east Asia by Shans, Siamese and Annamites to the
tribes they were in the habit of raiding for "slaves"l: in no case is
there any implication that the wholE' tribe so termed war. dependent.
The only tribes originally in a state 0: depenuence on the Malays were
the little Negrito nomads in Kedah, Kelantan and Upper Perak,
whole groups of whom were "owned" by individual Malay;;. But the
term used by the Malays for them was "hamba"2 in contradistinction
to Sakai. It is sugJrested therefore that the Governn:ent recogr:ise
the significance of this distinction. and also that it be remembered
that "Sakai" is permissible only as a general term for the pagan
tribes of Malaya.
The Ple-Temiar Senoi are called Orang Bukit by the neighbouring
Malays. Moreover tradition shews that the Ple-Temiar used to raid
the Malay kampongs in their turn: there are many cases of strangers
being chased out of their territory, on one occasion I believe a
Trigonometrical Survey party being so served in the area of Gunong
Noring. Captain Berkeley relates how they resisted the invasion of
the Patani men in 1810 behind earth-forts and killed the elephant of
the opposing chief with their iron-tipped arrows. Annandale in 1907
remarks on their being economically independent and, unlike the Jeher
Negritos, having no intercourse with the Malays. The Government
is justified in rescuing the Ple-Temiar Senoi from the "Sakai tangle"
and in substituting fact for confusioll.
Previous to the intervention of British rule, the Ple-Temiar
pursued the independent existence of a hill people on the mountains
of the Main Range. Only the decision of the British Government
--- - - _._- - ----- - -
1 "Sakai" is also used for certain tribes in Sumatra, whose racial composition
appears to be somewhat different to anyone group in this Peninsula. R. J.
Wilkinson states in his En<rlish-Malay Dictionary. 1902. Part II, that "Sakai" is
"a name also given to aboriginal tribes as being theo-retical/.y races subject to the
Malays." In whose theory? The point usually maintained is that they are
subject to the Malay R,der.
2 Captain Berkeley in a recent communication "The hill people (Ple.Temiar)
were never the "hamba" of the Malays like the Jeher (Neg-ritos) ."
62 Joumal of the F.M.S. Museums [VOL. XIX,
that the boundaries of the states of Perak and Kelantan should be
defined by the watershed has made the Ple-Temiar the subj8cts of
anybody. It is maintained here that full recognition of this fact
should inftuence our dealings with the Ple-Temiar.1
From the point of view of the British Government, however, the
Ple-Temiar have been assumed to be the subjects of the Sultans of
Perak and Kelantan. At the present time, the whole question is
very open. The Ple-Temiar are not Mohammedans, and there is no
reason to suppose that they shew any tendency to become such in bulk.
If it is maintained that the Senoi are the subjects of the
Sultans a definite policy which recognises their rights must be
instituted. The present situation is full of anomalies. For example,
up to now, no facts about the land tenure of the Senoi available.
A simple device was to assume that they had no ownership of land.
In some cases their land was given to Chinese squatters and they were
ejected. In one district compensation was given to Senoi groups
whose land was alienated to European estates. But no compensation
was given for the land alienated at Cameron Highlands (Semai Senoi).
On the present state map of Perak large areas of exclusive Ple-Temiar
land are designated "Malay Reservation"; most of it is unsurveyed. If
we are to 'have a reservation, let us at least reserve the land for the
people who occupy it. The first point to be decided is the right of the
Senoi to be regarded as full subjects of the Malay Rulers, to whom
benefits enjoyed by the Sultan's other subjects, if they are to be
the full subjects of that rule, should be extended.
Proposals as fo the Nature of a "Controlled Reservation."
The aim of establishing this is to extend to the Ple-Temiar the
benefits enjoyed by the Sultan's other subjectb, if they are to be
regarded as the subjects of the Sultan.
On the map at the end of this Report the Temiar territory ie
defined.
1. Within this territory it is suggested that the Government
should pledge itself to give due consideration to life vi s-a-vis
timber and wild life, and also to consider th-2 'interests of the Ple-
Temiar as paramount tn the event of the intrusion of alien enterprise.
2. Since the area in question has not been properly explored,
especially from a geological point of view, the Government must
reserve the right to issue mining leases, licenses for jelutong tapping,
etc. to private enterprise. But theSe would be regarded as temporary
leases and theoretically, the land would revert back to the Ple-Temiar
when it was exhausted of its resources, (or if like Kuala Kubu Lama,
an equivalent and suitable area elsewhere) .

I The records of early travellers continually reiterate that before British
enterprise opened up the interior the Malays had barely penetrated beyond the
big rivers, coasts and estuaries. Present kampongs , such as Sungkai, Slim, Tapah
all followed British intervention and were founded moreover by non Peninsular
Malays (Mendilings, Achinese, etc.) who intermarried with the aborigines. Clashes
and raids were exchanged by hill tribes and Malays, so whoever else was s ubject
to the Malays the Senoi never were. That theory originated quite recently.
1936] Proposed Aboriginal Policy 63
When such leasef; or licenses ace approved however, the welfare
of the Ple-Temiar should be considered, and they should not be
deprived of land, even temporarily, without full measures being taken
to ensure that the fortunes of anyone group do not suffer in
consequence. The gradual establishment and recognition of local
settlements adequate to the population of each river valley will
greatly solve this problem, particularly in the event of any of the
highlands being 'developed as hill stations.
3. Within the Reservation recognition should be given to tribal
customs, since t.hese have been shewn not to include such subversive
practices as cannibalism, head-hunting, child-betrothal and widow-
immolation (see account of their culture). Economically, the
essentially co-operative nature of their food quest, and the much
modified shifting cultivation which is already a tendency among them
(and which will be developed by the Settlement Scheme) will define
their land tenure. Socially, the maintenance of order is served
adequately bY' extended family organisation, with its device
for settling disputes and distribution of property. But the
Government should reserve the right to bring any disputes which
involve strangers into the ordinary District Courts of Law.
4. That in each river valley a Ple-Temiar chief (under whom there
will be local "headmen" or "ketua") be appointed who shall represent
the interests of the aborigines to the District Officer concerned, whom
he should be allowed to meet direct, and not through the offices of the
Malay Penghulu of the administered district. That the Offices of
" Mikong" for the Tern-engor and NEnggiri, and" Pangku" for the
Plus be confirmed.
5. That in each district, a Pattern Settlement be instituted among
the border aboriginal population, where culture contact is inevitable,
for the purpose of controlling the contact and for the di ssemination
of agricultural knowledge and health measures to the group. With
these Pattern Settlements the appointed chief should be associated.
6. That active encouragement and protection be given to certain
extra-ladang pursuits and trade which are a source of material wealth,
and that these be regulated by Government at the down river station,
instead of heing left to private individuals at roadhead to exploit for
their own benefit. These include (a) the "dulanging" for tin which
is pursued by certain groups in th8 various river valleys. The tin
allowed to each group should be sold down-river where it could be
easily supervised and thus the District Office can control its sale.
(b) jungle produce. This includes 10tans (a fairly large item) atap
(to Malays in the kampong) and wild fruits (such as tampoi) and
jelutong tapping.
Other possible sources of we:dth are aboriginal handicrafts
(blowpipes, etc., plaited bags and mats), this industry should be
encouraged, esp2cially at Cameron Highlands.
7. That whenever possi ble the Ple-Temiar Senoi should be
employed as labourers in any enterprises within the reservation, for
which they prove themselves fit. The point to be brought out is the
64
Journal oj the F.M.S. Museums [VOL. XIX,
essentially co-operative motive of Ple-Temiar work as organised
among themselves. Best work is done as a group: the individual does
not work for himself. The precipitation of individual effort will
follow gradua!ly.
8. Particular recognition should be given to the complete success
of the Elephant Control now ;mder Mr. F. J. Davy in the Plus District,
with Temiar labour recruited from the Sungai Korbu (Jalong, etc.)
Previous annually recurring damage of $50,000 is now negligible.
The only two Malay workers on this Scheme are recently moslemised
Temiar also.
9. Mention must also be made of the Temiar "gembala gajah" in
this area, who have been personally testified as having far greater
control over their beasts than similar mahouts in India. This activity
should definitely be fostered, as in time Malays may entirely relinquish
this for more lucrative work.
10. Another point which is worth investigating is the employment
of elephants for getting out timl:;.er, bat-guano and tin, with Temiar
gembalas. At Jalong, I believe, it has been found that large timber
can be handled more cheaply this way than by ,nanual means. The
Temiar complain that this sometimes involve.:! inj ury to the elephants:
this should be remediable by benefitting from experience in Siam and
Burma. .
1.1. 'ine organisation of Temiar groups to make reasonably graded
paths through their hills where reasonably necessary. Government
should enjoin maintenance and periodic clearing of the local paths by
the local groups; as also of the waterways on which the Temiar are
the sole experts at the rapids, which frequently get blocked by fallen
trees. In this connection I have on my own had such tracks cleared in
many places over 15 feet wide, for the passage of my carrier elephants,
and have been able to take the elephants right on to the Divide looking
across into Kelantan (about 4,000 feet altitude).
The strategic value of such paths is obvious, for surveyors,
prospectors, forest workers and research expeditions of whatever kind.
The Temiar are always available for porterage: they habitually carry
loads of 40 lOs. each for three do.ys on my expeditions along
precipitous tracks. Their indispen:;ability as guides and trackers of
game, and for apprehending runaway criminals and tin-stealers is
yearly demonstrated.
12. The pattern settlements should not only be placed within the
f-cope of the District Officers and District Forest Officers. but flhould
also be visited periodically by officers of the Agricultural Department
so that better methods of agriculture can be organised. For detailed
suggestions on this pivotal element in the scheme, the separate section
on pattern settlements may be studied.
13. The paUern settlements may often lie not far from Sanitary
Board areas and on the edges of kampongs and estates.
It seems as if medical aid is the greatest boon Government can
confer on these communities. Much good work was done in the Plus by
a travelling dispensary a year or two ago, but since the practice was not
1936] Proposed Aboriginal Policy 65
systematised, it has ceased with the departure of the Medical Officer
concerned. Such efforts will be more than repaid: the Temiar have
proved themselves again and again to have a more modern apprecia-
tion of European medicine than most Malays (c.f. for instance the
Senior Medical Officer's Kelantan, report, 1932). I have personally
found first-aid the trump-card in gaining their confidence, and medical
work must always be an essential feature of any scheme implementing
aboriginal welfare.
14. The introduction into the Refervation of drugs (opium, etc.)
and alcoholic liquor flhould be strictly forbidden, and offenders very
severely dea!t with. The Senoi brew no intoxicating liquor of their
own. Pedlars of wares (usually Chinese) should be allowed to enter
the Re&en'ation only when they obtain a license.
The introduction and sale of useless gewgaws should also be
controlled. Certain shop articles are of great utility: parangs, chains
for casting-nets, beads (of a tyoe imported from Indi:J).
iron axe-heads, changkuls, cloth, etc. This can be affected by
the periodical supervision of the few shops at road-head and also by
control of pedlars who are always few and easily ascertainable. If
possible there should be active propaganda through the pattern
settlement to restrict acauired articles of dress. (Always a
dangerous innovation, assisting the spread of skin diseases, owing to
" communal" habits, and also to pneumonia, since they are rarely
changed when wet; they are also conducive to dirt. The hill Temiar
comparatively clean, except the very old people. and may be
observed to bathe frequently: yet overclothing and 'kurap' though
rare, always seem to go together). -
As far as possible, S<l.1'0ngs, bajus and kain keoala of the Malay
fashion should be and fancy hats. cast-off shirts, trousers
(Senoi are frequently given dirty cast-off clothes of this nature by
Bengalis and Chinese at Tanah Rata). and coats and blazers should be
discouraged. These should be viewed as being culturally subversive.
15. The practice. becoming increasingly frequent. of transporting
aborigines and putting them on show in amusement parks and else-
where should be forbidden by law universally. In the last veal'. Semai
and Temiar have been" shown" in Singapore. Penang Taiping.
The towkays concerned are quit.e ig-norant of their real habits and
mode of life: the picture so presented is a caricature of the truth and
the inevitable association with undesirable elements in the and
the amusement park at night cannot but have a bad effect on savages.'
16. The problem of missions is difficult one: a fairly full and
impartial account of variolls missior.ary activities and their effect is
given in t.he preceding section. The point is that the bulk of
the Ple-Temiar population are geographically and culturally too inacces-
sible to tJ.e readily assimilated to Mohammedanism. A definite aversion
to initiation exists in many cases: and a certain sense of independence
and solidarity against conversion. Individual cases of
"masok Malayu" in the border settlements do occur, a very few each
1 Since this was written. control has been in Perak.
66
Journal of the F.M.S. Museums [VOL. XIX,
vear' and insofar as a study of the "Malay" breed reveals the Senoi
as a formidable factor in the "Malay" livery, this should not
be interfered with; in some cases of isolated aboriginal communities
the policy of Government should be definitely to encourage it as the
only means of survival.
Religion tasically implies citizenship with the new group, and
not cultural isolation.
16. It is worth whil e to record that some of these provisions were
included in the 'surats' or letters of authority approved by the Hon'ble
the British Resident, Pahang when constituting the Temiar and Semai
Reservation on the Ulu Telom, which I do not believe were gazetted.
Some of them may have figured in the past constitution of isolated
aboriginal reservations throughout the country; and the aborigines are
often noticed in a negative and secondary manner in certain Forest
Enactments, but the important stell of systematising and codifying
aboriginal policy in a Government gazette is still urgently needed and
the basis for this, namely accurate knowledge about the various
aboriginal groups has hitherto been lacking.
A Succinct Survey of the Prop(Hed Reservation
(with special reference to Administration).
A large section of the Temiar area both in Perak and Kelantan,
'admits the protection of persons called "rnikong." Mikong is a
Siamese title, and so has been disregarded by the British Government
who has not however been aware of its real nature. The office of
mikong is hereditary, and is held by the descendants of the aboriginal
union of a Siamese and a Temiar woman (local Malay and Temiar
tradition admit this). The two present mikongs, one at Rampong
Temengor, Perak and one at Kuala Betis, Kelantan, are cousins.
The former is recognised by all Temiar communities on the
Temengor, the Sara, the Sengoh, the Ringat and the adjacent
tributaries of the Piah, a population of about 3,000. The latter, at
Kuala Betis, is recognised by the Temiar on the Brok and the Betis,
and the Sungai Nenggiri as far downstream as Kuala Prias, a popula-
tion of about 3,000.
In the .course of my expeditions, I have formed the utmost respect
for the To'mikong at Kuala Betis. The Temiar trust him and follow
his wishe;:;; they do not, on the other hand recognise any other
authority, and even the To'Penggawai 2t Kuala Berlam (Malay Chief
of Ulu Ncnggiri, Kelantan) has to depend on his co-operation before
anything can be done. Of the old mikong at Kampong Temengor,l
I have l'!ot had so much experience, so I cannot speak with so much
confidence. The Temiar, in these r:vers will be influenced only by
the man they recognise as their "mikong."
The first step necessary, therefore, is to recognise the in:stitt!tioll
of "dato' mikong" for these two areas, and half the problem is solved.
I The old l\1ikong (o\, "Mi5 nltkong" ) of Temengor has recently died, and a
new one has been appointed, but has been transferred to Grik, waere the hill
people cannot readily have access to him. A relative should be who
should lit Temengor,
1936] P1'oposed Aboriginal Policy 67
The two offices of 'penghulu' and 'mikong' may pei:Ii.':l. ps be merged.
The To' Mikong at Kampong Temengor would, of course, be
responsible to the District Officer, Upper Perak (Grik), and the
To' Mikong at Kuala Betis, would be responsible to the District Officer,
Vlu Kelantan, through the To'Penggawai Nenggiri at Bertam; but he
should be paid a small salary, in recognition of his office. He
has had to find bearers and raftsmen for numerous expedition" lately
(Perak Museum, Kelantan Forests, Kelantan Police) and receives no
regular pay.
These mikongs, particularly the mikong at Kuala Betis, have
been able to get much response from the Temiar local units (extended
families) under my scheme to develop the permanent settlement. with
cultivation of dearings in rotation .. which is already a tendencv of the
hill stock groups. It is the character of this response in the last two
years, besides a knowledge of the working of certain of their other
institutions which makes me confidE:nt of the solid success of the
scheme I now propose.
There remain certain other areas. In Kelantan. the valleys of
the Prias and the Jindera and the Lah, and the main stream of the
Nenggiri as far down as the borders of Menri Neg-rito country holding
a population of over 2.000. In t.he headwaters of the Jindera and
Prias live some of the most formidable of the Temiar; they are in
touch with Chinese vegetable gardeners at Kuala Jindera. In Perak,
we are left with the area drained by the Plus, together with which go
the adjacent tributaries of the Piah; and further south the smaller
area of Bekor, the Kinta and the adiacent tr;butaries of the Raya.
(The Sungei Raya is the boundary betwf21l the Temiar and their
cousins the Semai Senoi).
The Plus area, which according to Mr. J . E. Kempe's census
contains over 2.000 Temiar, is included in the Di st rict of Kuala
Rangsar. The Plus Temiar recogniSE as protector a person whom
they address as To'Pangku. Alang, the To'Pan.ll'ku, who recently
died, came of a Moslemised Temiar family of Lasah.
The influence of the To' Pangku of Lasah extended to the
"Plusward" tributaries of the paralled Piah. such as the Sungai Teras,
the Middle and Upper Piah is more accessible from the Plus (route
follows up the Temor), whilst its source is attainable from Ulu
Temengor; in spite of these facilitie:; of communication the Govern-
ment might think fit to follow District boundaries and place the whole
valley of the Piah together with Temengor, it is in the Disfrict
of Upper Perak. The Lower Piah could be reached from Lenggong
and with it should go the Dala, and the Soh and neighbouring streams.
The Middle Piah is by the old Lasah-Temengor track which
follows the Jemheng tributary :>f Temengor; (but for this reason
is just as accessible from the Plus). The headwaters of the Piah are
isolated from the MidJile Piah bv precipitous falls and narrow ravines,
and the Piah groups habitually thE' parallel Temor when travelling
bphveen these two streams. (See map) .
The Chernor may conveniently be linked with the Korbu since it if'
a small area, and there is much intercourse between the two.
68 Jou?"nal of the F.M.S. MuseUWflS [VOL. XIX,
The Ulu Kinta completes the Temiar territory in Perak. These
groups suffer much distress owing to its appropriation as a catchment
area for the Kinta water supply. They have had to relinquish much
of their best land but need constant supervision; and a little effort on
our part would not only settle these groups more satisfactorily, but
facilitate gre<:)t!y the water scheme.
The U/u Nenggiri.
The DIu Nenggiri is at present rather inaccessible from the
DiRtrict Office at Krai. but there ii' a broad graded path now in
process of completion and it will be soon possible to reach Kuala
Betis from the railway at Gua Musang in a single day's march, and
from there it is possible to raft down to the railway at Bertam near
Kuala Sungei Nenggiri in two days. Sinc-e the Temiar in the valleys
Gf the Nenggii-i outnumber Malays by nearly four to one and the
Malays are either concentrated at Kuala Betis and Songkai, or
below the Temiar boundary toward:; Bertam, there seems no reason
why a controlled reservation should not be established over the whole
of this area. This seems to me all the more urgent since there ::tre
indications th::tt large deposits of tin occur, especially in the Yai
valley and, if tin restriction is lifted, several applications for mining
right!:; are expected. If alienations occur some control will be ssen-
':ial; at present there are Chinese washing tin as we have up
,he Jindera and up the Yai and trouble resulting in bloodshed (/)n
both sides) has occurred, and from my experience is likely to
increase.
Alienation could proceed without adversely affecting th-<:!
interests of the Temiar if my scheme of settlement were acc8pted.
It is regrettable that Chinese are abl-e to live among the aborigines
in an area quite out of touch, for geographical reasons, \\' ;th the
district authorities. These Chinese in the Jindera and Prias ODeT'.!.v
state that there is nobody to protect the Temiar; just as I have heard
people say on the Perak side. The Chinese and the Malays know it,
and the Temiar themselves are only too aware of it .
If alienations of this kind arc to be permitted, corresponding
settlement of the Temiar, and some representative through whom
they may ensure the protection of their interest are in my opinion
more than justified. It is impossible for the district office to get in
touch easily with the various groups, but I believe that the
Forest Officer, who is able in the course of his duties to tour in the field
should assump. the duties of of the Temiar and also other
aborigine:; in It is moreover in the interests of the
eRoecially that he should have some control over the settlements.
The Mikong at Kuala Betis could assemble the various headman of the
Brok and the Betis and the Nenggiri as far downstream as Kuala Prias,
whilst for the one night spent on the rafting trip down to Bertam., thE:
Dato' Pegawai from Bertam could arrange for the assembly of the
headmen of the Prias and Jindera and Lower Nenggiri. For a Fores t
Officer the trip if' not an arduous one and can be completed in four
days from Gua Musang. The area of the Ulu Nenggiri is a large one,
but the Temiar population far outnumbers any other community, and
it should not be argued that the area reserved should not exceed the
reservation established in the Ul\l for the Temiar ollly
1936] Proposed Aboriginal Poli cy
69
number about one hundred and fifty and the particular function of
that Reserve was, by guaranteing the rights of the Temiar adjacent
to the development area to undisturbed settlement, to reassure the
other groups living further away as to their future.
The ultimate aim of the policy is to consolidate graduallv the
settlements of various local groups in this territory so that 'when
the time comes for the opening up of the mineral and oth0r resources
each group will be associated with a clearly defined orbit of territory
within which it will settle down on the pattern of a five-field
of cultivation. They will thus be able to face the stress of culture
contact without the degeneration so of teo regarded as in0vitable.
The pattern settlements should be established downriver in accessib!."
sites as soon as possible for the Ulu Plus and the DIu Nenggiri: there
is less urgency for the Ulu Temengor, Ulu Piah and Ulu Sara. Later
the tendency found among many groups already for settling win, a
rotation of fields should be definit ely encouraged until the Whole area
is settled.
The Controlled Reservation and the Pattern Settlements.
Consideration of the effects of culture contact on th3 Temiar
from various points of view suggest that the establishm8nt of
'" Pattern settlements" in accessible localities would most practically
dEcal with t'1e issues rai sed. A" Pattern settlement" would mean
the permanent settl ing of a grou p depending on cultivation of dry
crops on the five-field Rystem selected as a base for propaganda.
Such a RettJ..,ment situated down ri ver would be easily accessible to
the various officers of the di stri ct who could visit it during
their rounds. 1nRofar as many groups even in the remote
headwaters tend to adopt thi s pattern of it is no
Utopian dream. The pattern settlement would be th8 mean3
of getting in touch with all the inhabit.ants of a river vallev and
propaganda would spread from it. A headman would be apPoint-:>c
who should he able to represent the interestR of the aborigines direct
to the District Officer and not through the m8dium of the Penghtdu
kampong.
A travelling dispensary should include the settlement in
and the Agricultural Field Officer could assist greatly in im-
proving the methods of cultivation. The commerce of the river such
a>: tin, rotan, .ielutong and other produce could in time be marketed
on a co-operative basis from a station associated with it.
The chief advantage of this scheme is that it permits of gradual
progress: interference further upriver is not as has been pointed out,
necessary at present in Perak. The headmen of ulu groups could
a!ways however be called in periodically to state their grievances, if
any; and once a year a gathering of as many inhabitants of the
river vaney as possible s hould be organised with dancing and contests
with the blowpipe, as is done sometimes at Grik with Negritos
or at Bentong at the time 'of the Agricultural Show.
The Controlled Reservation of the Perak-Kelantan watershed for
the Temiar is necessary to give time for the consolidation of these
8ettlements. A bginning could be made by establishing a control.!ed
7()
Journal of the F.M.$. Museums (VOL. XL"t
reservation in the Ulu Nenggiri, Kelantan and in the Ulu Plus, Perak.
There are over two thousand Temiar in the valleys of the Plus, and
four thousand in the valleys of Nenggiri.
Direction of the Policy.
The primary purpose of the Field Ethnographer was to suggest
a scheme which should fit the protection of the Temiar interests into
the existing fabric of the administration, thereby obviating the
necessity for a new Department. OnE. of the chief aims of establish-
ing the Pattern Settlements for each was to create a represen-
tative who could be easily acc.essible to the District Office and who
should be allowed an opportunity periodically to meet the District
Officer or the Assistant District Officer direct.
This principle should not be submerged when we select the
appropriate agents for organising and controlling the settlement
scheme. The District Officers, it is clear, will be able to spare little
time to do more than keep in touch with the authority in charge of
the pattern settlement. For the Diu Nenggiri it bas been suggest.ed
that the Dato' Mikong should represent the Brok and Betis, and that
the Dato'Pegawai Nenggiri at Bertam should appoint some repre-
Sntative for the Prias and Jindera and Lower Nenggiri . The Dato'
Mikong for the Temengor and Sara should also be confirmed. For
the DIu Plus the office of To' Pangku already existing should be
confirmed, and all these chiefs should be paid a small salary in
recognition of their offices.
The direction and supervision in the field of aboriginal policy
remain to be considered. Should the Temiar or any aborigines he
classed as Wild Life and left to the charge of the Game Department?
The Game Department does not possess a sufficiently w:dely
spread field staff to accept this responsibility. I believe that the
Forest Department, who have a system of officials already established
on a wide front should be given the opportunity to control the
policy in the field.! They stand to profit by the saving of timber
which will result. They could train in the lower grades of Forest
guards selected individuals from the accessible pattern settlement
and from this as a base, and with the Temiar themselves as agents,
should be able in the fullness of time to pursue the policy of settle-
ment far upstream to. anticipate future alienation by priva.te
enterprise. In the case' of the DIu Plus a school at Jalong, the
pattern settlement for that area, would train foresters who could
operate on a front from Sungai Raya in the south to Gunong Noring
in the north, that is as far as the limits of the PIe Temiar language
and culture. The routine of the school, which would be adjacent to
a plantation on the five-field system, could Agricultural
tEaching as WElL The Field Ethnographer would do all he could to
co-operate in the establishment of thi s station, and he is satisfied of
the success of the scheme.
As far as co.operation is concerned, it is germane to quote two
instances among the Southern Senoi.
1 The Forest Office r, al,d not the Mala y would therefore he the
link in each district between the aborigines and the District Officer.
1936]
Proposed Aboriginal Policy
71
At !r0noh in Perak, it was arrang.ed through the District Office
that a hcencee who wail working timber in an aboriginal reservation
P3;y to the Senoi. The proceeds were invested by
the DistrIct Office and with the funds a school was opened and the
salary of the teacher was paid from them.
At Kuang in Selangor, another school has been opened with the
money from the sale of rubber off land owned by the Senoi.
A similar fund could easily be created for the Temiar Controlled
Reservation from the sale of aboriginal jungle produce marketed on
a co-operative basis. From these profits it should be possible for a
sum to be deducted annually as " rent."
Summary of the Provisions necessary in the Proposed Enactment
Constituting the Ple-Temiar "Controlled Reservation."
A. The .powers that Government must be given in the Enactment.
1. Government to have full conlrol of ingress and / or residence
of aliens in the Reservation, and of emigration.
2. Government to have full cc.ntrol of imports and exports and
trading.
3. Government to have full powers of control to supervise in
matters of law and order within the Reservation.
4. Government to have power to exploit natural resources
(minerals, timber, etc.).
5. Government to have power to appoint officers to give effect to
the provisions of the Enactment.
B. Suggestions for Government Policy in the exercise of the poweT5
detailed above.
1. To regulate and to graduate the shock of culture-contact
to preserve the Ple-Temiar Senoi from the hitherto
mevltable fate of primitive peoples.
2. To regulate and to graduate the shock of culture-contact
by the esta?lishment of Pattern Settlements among the border
whlc? would be in touch with the District Office, the
DistrIct Medlca.l and Agricultural Offices.
3. To recognise the validity of the Senoi customs relating to land
ten.ure. a.nd property, and also their social machinery for
mamtammg law and order among themselves. To retain
but suspension, the law oj the country,
only fail s, or. is Inadequate (e.g. when
strangers are mvolved) . To appomt representative chiefs
to be responsibl'e, with Protectors, to the District Office
through the District Forest Officer. '
4. To control all forms of trade; imports to be permitted only
under licence (pejlars a.nd road-head shops) : drugs and
gewgaws to be prohi.bited. Prices to be regulated by the
If pOSSible, and as soon as possible, to establish
co-operative tradll1g stations near pattern settlements under
Govern.ment . auspices ; the Co-operative Department might
supervise thls scheme. -
72 Jou1'nal of the F.M.S. Museums (VOL. XIX,
5. Labour: employment of Ple-Temiar to be under Government
regulation.
6. Revenue (mainly from forest produce at present) not likely
to be very high: expenditure involved, on the other hand, is
also not exorbitant: (Sml1l1 salaries to Chiefs and Protectors;
outlay of Agricultural and Medical supplies). If the imporl
and export trade is carried out under Government control as
suggested in paragraph 41 it may be possible in time to
establish a favourable of trade.
7. Government should declare whatever provisions they may
agree are just by Gazette Notification.
Conclusion.
It is hoped that the foregoing summary of Ple-Temiar culture
and distribution has made it clear that some sort of Ethnographic
Survey of the Malay Peninsula is a rratter, after all, of some moment.
Some of the details must seem unexpected to many people in thi s
country, and the question at once arises whether similar regional
studies in other areas might not bring to light facts which on the
one hand .enable us to decide more readilv on matter of acorig-inaJ
policy, and on the other hand tend to shew that not all Malayan
aborigines are inevitably doomed to extinction. It is not peoples, but
cultures, that may become extinct.
It has been shewn that the Temiar at any rate is not an in-
tractable savage, devoid of any economic si!!nificance, but one who may
well respond to encouragement and control. It must be remembered
that no systematic attempt over 3 long period has vet been made
to settle people even in accessible area'>. The little they have
achieved is due to their own unaided efforts and it cannot be denied
that the dice has been just as heavily loaded asrainst them in recent
times as in the remote past. British education has widened the
gulf between them and the kampong folk, and the bridge which
leads to survival among the Malay community is year by year
becoming more attenuated.
Small though the a.boriginal population of the peninsula may be
in comparison with other communities, their blood is persisting al so
in the Malay elect. Many l\{alays to who-n I have given an oppor-
tunitv to meet the hill Temiar have been surprised at their culture
and physical fitness . I do not beliwJe that it is too late for a greater
degree of to develop towards the aborigines on the part_ of
the Malays, who must ultimately make or mar these peoples future.
[ I am preparing a detailed scheme of Aboriginal Consolidation .with special
reference to the UJu Plus, and also organising a co-operative s chen1e and a
Pattern Settlement for the Ulu Telom.
ll:l36] Proposed Abo1'tginal Policy 73
This more than anything els-e will be the acid test of their newly
inspired culture.
In the meantime it is not the duty of the Ethnographer to
become a crusader in the executive field; but rather to accumulate
and systematise knowledge 'Of the various and diverse aboriginal
cultures in the Peninsula, and so make available a progressive record
not only of the" Sakai" as he really is, but the changing Sakai who
must be making successive adjustments to the new cultures he has
to face, or else go under. It is as important to have documentary
evidence of the extent to which he has already gone in developing
. fresh enterprise unaided; (the South-east Pahang Jakun, for instance,
have for years been the sole labour force of a European trader)
as it is to study the hill stock Temiar, who live out a life
to an environment quite unsuited for the kam-pong folk, &.nd who
have become hardened by the greater call on their energy than would
..,provide the dweller Ull the steamy plains with his nourishment.
' . Relatively vast areas of the Peninsula are still undeveloped
jungle, so that to-day timber, wild life and primitive people coincid:!
in a single area. It seems not unreasonable that the interests uf
the inhabitants should have their protectors as well as the timhcr
and the big game.
As for the Ple-Temiar Senoi, may this "plain tale from the hills"
contribute in some small way to their future prosperity.
APPENDICES.
1936] A]Jpendices 'l'l
APPENDIX 1.
Captain Hubert Berkeley, I.S.0., writes.-
"I have always thought that a number of families living at
Temengor and other places at Ulu Perak were what you describe
as PIe T,iniar. 'fhey are all of a st.amp, thick and strong, similar
to those people at Ulu Piah, and other rivers flowing down from
Noring and Grah, They have only been Muslem for two genera-
tions, at most. Their head man years ago was Pah Mat Noh of
Bandin, and his father was the first lVbslim. When iVIengkong GaR
came from Patani to colonise Temellgor, perhaps about 1810, they
opposed hirr., and shot at him with arrows. They were then living
at Ulu Banun, a river whose K\:Iala is 3 miles north of Kuala
Singoh. They called themselves Orang JlIk and Banun. They
never became the hamba of Mengkong Gas, like the Jeher. Thos'!
in the hills still used bows and iron tipped arrows till, at least 1900.
I had a number of them. The iron tips wer-e leaf-shaped, and they
killed Mengkong Tamal"s elephant with them. I firmly believe
they are kin to the Orang Lao of the Siamese states further north.
They had an earth work at Kuala Banun, and another on the Singoh
at Kuala Sara. The long houses you describe are to be found at Ulu
Temengor and Ulu Piah. They have no skin disease. I gave a
lembing to chief which they value very much. You will
find them, but they will not sell them. Clifford describes ther.l
rather vaguely in of hi s cooks, but I cannot remember which.
I think I his saying they were there before the Mab.ys.
Pall Mat Noh is de2.d years, and so is Hudang another lealiing
man among- them. "
78
Journal of the F.M.S. Museums [VOL. XIX,
APPENDIX II.
Mr. Anker Rentse of Kota Baharu, Kelantan, writes to me.-
"The Temiar have followed me through the jungle on many
occasions doing rentis-cutting and ,ther work. Being used to the
somewhat unreliable Semang (Jahai) of tht' Sokor Jungle, I was
much impressed by the fine type of an unspoiled aborigine
Temiar to be. I find that, if treated carefully, thy
come forward to one in confidence, and their word can be rehd
upon. They a:e very good and steady workers, well-built and fit
for the hare jungle work, and as carriers very few can them ..
On one occasion six of them carried heavy loads on their backs on
a twenty miles walk through hilly jungle country in one day, which
did not, h-owever. prevent thm from roaming about the riverbank
eatching fish until after midnight; just sporting for the fun of the
Ilame! They were not at all in need of food, they had had a heavy
meal of rice and sardines after sunset. I myself, and the Malays,
wre rather done after the long walk, and we l-ooked on in astonish-
ment at the activity of the Temiar.
The fact that the Temiar seem to be hen on settling down as
agriculturists and hunters, doing a littl barter as well with jungle
produce, puts them on a higher level than the Semang, who are
nomads and whc take no or very little interest in agriculture. A
Temiar' chief approached me about ] ll:! years ago and expressed his
desire to keep goats. I purchased some for him from the Kelantan
plain, and I undf'.rstand that the Temiar are taking a in-
terest in goats. They asked for Padi too Improve their stock,
and the Principal Agricultural Officer, Kelantan, was kind enough to
supply me with some hill padi, which I brought up to them, and
which was planted afterwards. Likewise, when on a trip to Kota
Rahru with me, thEY asked for fruit trees and flowers to plant in
their clearings. It appears to me that the Temiar will be able to
develop as a -forest ma!1, doing agriculture on an increased scale,
and it is to be hoped that they may remain the intelligent, honest
and good working people they apr;ear to be; but this I am afraid is
possible only through protection. It cannot be pointed out too
strongly the Chinese adventurers, and especially the jelutong
tappers, appear to regard these kind hearted and unknowing people
merely as an easy obiect for profiiering. Almost daily the Temial
came to my camp with complaints of being cheated, and in one or
two cases I made the culprits pay up. The country between
Kuala Raya-Kuala Betis and Gua Musang-Pulai is not inhabited
by the Temiar, and the country there is unknown to them except for
the path to Gua Musang. As progress goes on and the Diu Neng-
giri opened up in the future, there may be no place then to which
the Temiar may Thus it appears that a Temiar
containing their present home, the jungle round DIu Brok, Sungei
Betis, Sungei Prias, and Sungei .Iind:;ra is necessarv to preserve the
race for the future. A big area like this may be considered a
fr0m a commercial point of view, barring the development
1936] Appendices 79
of the country, and with nllnIng in view I think certain allowances
could be made in cas a valuable ore should be discovered. But
with the jelutong tapping in view, this country would be a more
valuable asset than at present, where the Chinese tappers
are overtapping and spoiling th trees to an extent, whicn will kill
this industry completely within the near future. Already now
there are hardly any jelutl(mg trees of valu to be found in the
jungle round Gua Musang, and the Chinese tappers have now com-
menced an attack on th lower part of the Nenggiri. If the
jelutong tapping could be left in the hands of the Temiar, they
would, in their own interest, see that the tapping would be done on
a sound scale, and that sufficient bark would be left for renewal in
order to render a steady source of income for themselves and their
future generations.
The lawl!l of a Temiar community appear to be strictly observed,
and very outside interference is not at all tolerated. An ex-
amiJle of this was shown some time ag-o, when a Chinese, who tried
to seduce one of their women, was killed on the spot. And we know
about that strange group living on the Kelantan-Perak border at
the DIu of Sungei Jindera and Sungei Sengoh, whom you have visited
yourself, and who do not even tolerate the trespass of strangers in
their country.
I think it may be mentioned too in favour of a Temiar Reserve
that Wild Life WJuld be bettfr preserved. The Temiar are hunters
only fOL small game like squinels, birds and monkeys, and they kill
sufficient only for their own requirEments. They do not go out for
big game, which :s of no use to them.
If the Temiar can be guardEd and guided, there is reason to
believe, thgt they will dsvelop furthEr into a useful primitive com-
mUllity, living acccrcl"ng to their own laws and traditions. I think
they should be guarde::l against outside influence and civilisation,
which may have the cpy::osite effect of what is desired, and turn
them into a lazy, almost degenerated community, going to Cinemas
in motor cars with cowboy hats and blue sunglasses."
80 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums (VOL. XIX.
APPENDIX III.
Extract from the Medical Annual Report for the State of
Ketantan for the Year 1933.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
35.
SECTION II.
Public Health.
Little is known about the health of the Aboriginal races in the
unopened jlingle which forms the greater part of Southern
Kelantan.
This year (in April) the Chief Medical' Officer had occasion to
make another journey up the Nenggiri River, as a suspected
case of small-pox had been reported in one of the Ladangs
(Clearings) occupied by the Temiar in this region, (Penghu\u
Jagor's house at Kuala Cherus).
Though the visit was a hurried one, 3 Malay villages (Kul!Ja
Betis, Dusun Rajah and Sonkai). and 4 Temiar CJ.earings were
visited and 249 people examined and vaccinated (130 Malays
and 119 Temiar).
At Dusun Rajah (a few miles above Kuala Betis) 2 elderly
women had old marks of Chicken-pox or Small-pox, but the,;e
were due to infection at Pasir Mas many years ago.
At Kuala Cherus, the wife of Penghulu Jagor had a few marb
suggestive of recent very mild Chicken-<pox, but apart from
these people, no evidence of these diseases was seen, and they
appeared to be unknown, even among the old people in this
valley.
No cases of Yaws (or Scars of old infection) were seen in
Kuala Betis or beyond, but two severe cases were seen at a
Temiar Clearing at Chokek (down stream from Kuala Betis).
Unlike- the more primitive and nomadic Semang. met with in
other parts of Kelantan, e,g, Vlu Sokol', skin disease is not
common among the Temiar-or at least among those
clearings I visited on the river bank-and only 4 cases (Tlllea
circinata) were seen among the 119 exar:nined. three thf'se
being in the house of Penghulu Stia at SonkaJ. The
Temiar on the river side, normally build raised houses of
bamboo (communal tl) the extent that all members of the
Clearing share it), and the ground beneath and these
is kept as clean, if not deaner, than most Malay Village houses.
They appear to bathe frequently, and the young adults take
considerable interest in their personal appearance. All
ings appears to be sufficiently the staple articles
of diet; tapioca, bananas, etc,. bemg the chief g'uden produce,
while fowls are numerous. Rice is grown, but the crop is
a!Jparently liable to be disappointing.
is common in the Malay. villages this
river. No cases were seen among the Temlar, though It wa;
said to occur.
The incidence of Malaria was not ascertained. Fe:-rer sdid
to be common, and at Kuala Betis (Malay) practically all the
children examined had enlarged Spleens.
1936] Appendices
APPENDIX IV.
Report by Dresser Uteh bin Aziz on his tour
to Ulu Plus.
81
Left Kuala Kangsar on the morning of 30-4-31 and joined the
District Officer's party at Jalong at 3.30 p.m. On the same day the
Sakais, mostly their penghulus only, assembled at Jalong from mu
Penagor, Kuala Kuak, Sungei Lark, Ulu Legap, Kuala Larek,
Chabang and Chengkai. The total population of these places is
about 660, (Jalong included) and of these only about 260 were present.
The chief ailment of those who were present was Malaria (52 with
enlarged spleen) and skin diseases. 204 cases were treated. Only
nine cases of yaws were seen and these have had no injections.
Those that had injections were almost cured. Other minor com-
plaints are given below. They were all fairly healthy.
Males Females Total
Malaria 38 14 52
Ringworm 48 12 60
Scabies 22
22
Wounds 12
12
Sprain
8
8
Bronchitis 6
6
Neuralgia 22 7 29
Ulcers 3
3
Dyspepsia 3 2 5
Caries teeth 3
3
Boils 2 conjunctivitis 2 4
167 37 204
Friday, 1-5-31, 8.45 a.m.: Left Kampong Jalong and reached
Korbu at 2 p.m. by elephants, distallce about 10 miles. At Kuala
Korbu only about 80 were present. They were collected from Kuala
Bak, Kuala Gelapor and Kuala Korbu. The total population of these
settlements is about 167. Total cases treated, 56 only-General
condition fair.
Males Females Total
Malaria 12 8 20
R:ngworm 10 3 13
Neuralgia 4 5 9
"Vounds 4 3 7
Ascariasis 3 4 7
33 23 56
Saturday, 2-5-31, 10.45 a.m.: Owing to rain We had to leave
Kuala Korbu late. Reached Denah at 2 p.m. by sampan upstream.
Stayed a night at Denah. No Sakai!:; here.
82
Journal of the r.M.S. Museums [VOL. XIX,
Sunday, 3-5-31, 9 a.m.: Left Denah by sampan upstream and
reached Kuala Temor at 11.15 a.m. The Sakais were collected from
Tapi, Proi, Lamor, Pragok, Lang, Chuor, Kajang, Balieh and Nyer.
The total population is 530, but about 100 only were present. The
number of cases treated was 87. TPeir general condition is fair.
Ringworm
Malaria (Enl. spleens) ...
Constipation
Scabies
Yaws
Diarrhoea
Males Females Total
22 6 28
21 11 32
9 1 10
527
617
3 3
66 21 87
Monday 4-5-31 8 a.m.: Left Kuala Temor on foot and reached
Kuala at 2 p.m., distance about 10 miles. The Sakais were
collected from VIu Legap, Sungei Cheor, DIu Lalang, VIu Yum, Jatoh
and Jail. Out of the total of 775 only about 200 were present. They
are fairly healthy here, better than those of the last places, but are
still a bit wild. Total No. of cases treated, 137-on 5-5-31.
Malaria
Ringworm
Constipatiori
Scabies
Yaws
Neuralgia
Diarrhoea
Bronchitis
Wounds
. ,
Males Females Total
18 13 31
26 14 40
21 12 33
10 1 11
213
718
426
2 2
3 3
93 44 137
Wednesday, 6-5-31, 7.10 a.m.: Left Kuala Legap by rafts and
reached Kuala Temor at 12.30 p.m. Left Kuala Temor by sampan
at 1 p.m. and reached Kuala Korbu at 5 p.m. Stayed a night at
Kuala Korbu.
Thursday, 7-5-31, 6.30 a.m.: Left Kuala Korbu by sampan down-
stream to Lasah and from Lasah by car to Kuala Kangsar. Reached
Kuala Kangsar at 4-55 p.m.
Note by H. D. Noone.
On the whole this entirely independent record, which only came
into my hands at the moment of going. to press, sypplies
corroborative evidence of the comparatively healthier conditIOn of
the hill stock.
At Jalong the samples were too mixed, and samples of both hill
stock and downriver types were present. At Kuala Korbu too few
1936] Appendices 83
samples were available. Moreover individuals from both these places
had been treated about that time by a travelling dresser for yaws,
malaria and so on. But at Kuala Temor and Legap we have
sufficient samples, and of these samples, those at Legap would shew
a far higher percentage of hill stock, whilst at Kuala Temor a fair
percentage of downriver types was available.
It must be noted that it is especially stated that "enlarged spleen"
was marked down as " malaria," whilst in the case of yaws, subjects
from Legap would be less likely to have applied for previous treat-
ment from the travelling dispensary.
Kuala T ern or :
malaria (enlarged spleen)
ringworm
scabies
yaws
Legap (predominantly hill stock):
malaria
ringworm
scabies
yaws
32%
28<:1"
7'10
7 %
15.5 '70
20 '10
5.5 7'0
1.5%
84 Journal oFthe F.M.S. Museums [VOL. XIX
APPENDIX V.
Summary of Mr. l E. Kempe's Plus Census 1931
Jalong:
Place. Ketua Adult Children Totai
M. F. M. F.
UIu Penagar
Kuan
K. Kuah
S. Tabong
VIu Legap
S. Kerup
Ulu S. Chengkai
Ulu Pelias
K. Pelias
G. Jalong
Kg. Chabang
Kuala Korbu:
Kg. Glafar
K. Korbu
K. Bah
Kuala Timor:
Kg. Kajang
K. Timor
Kg. Komaris
Kg. Lamar
Kg. Biub
Sat
Peragok
Kuala Legap:
Kuala Legap
G. Lalang
S. Teior VIu
S. Teor Ilir
Kuala Yom
S. Milik
Kg. Jatoh (S. Rimau)
Bendang Raja
Pendub
I>andak Kawi
Doman
Awang
Long
Busu
Uda
Busu
Ngah
Ngah Rani
Toh Stia
N gah Bintang
Ngah Abu
Panglima
Alang Kijai
Pandak
Ngah Lengking ..
Balig
Long
Penghulu Muda ..
Ngah Busu
Toh VIu
Mentri
Peng Ladang
Long
Peng Ladang
Ngah
Long
Long
Tandil
10 15
14 16
20 25
14 17
16 14
18 14
29 27
5 6
7 10
14 19
29 26
21 21
23 18
5 5
8 6
8 10
31 32
8 8
10 9
30 33
29 34
20 22
23 28
6 5
16 18
8 9
39 46
23 27
19 18
15 14
16 10
11 16
19 24
18 10
9 15
11 3
33 14
9 1
4 6
19 11
25 15
15 8
19 21
3 8
3 4
7 6.
18 14
8 1
7 10
29 27
20 17
25 23
28 37
19 3
15 17
8 13
60 31
25 26
27 20
38 10
51
57
88
59
54
46
103
21
27
63
95
65
81
1
21
21
31
95
25
36
119
100
90
116
33
66
38
176
101
84
77
Total 518 552 548 421 2039
1 This group, which I enumerated again in August 1936 has increased to
90 persons,-not counting 11 new persons who have joined the group since 1931.
at its Settlement on the Perlop, near Kuala Korbu.
[N.B.-Among the breeding portion of the whole population in the Plus
females predominate over males (cf. Hutton, Census of India 1931).
Although there are many more male children, more of these may be
expected to die before adolescence than females, which levels the figures up.
H.D.N.]
........
1936] . 85
APPENDIX VI.
Summary of Vital Statistics of Ple-Temiar Senoi based on
genealogical analysis of H. D. Noone.
. ,
Down River Communities: Lower Korbu, Sengoh, Lower Betis and
Lower N enggiri.
Unions Male Child1'en Female Children
alive dead alive dead
56 40 34 35 28
Infant Mortality Rate
Fertility Rate
Survival Rate
Masculinity at Birth
Masculinity of Survivals
45.2%
2.45 per married woman.
1.34 per married woman.
100 girls to 119 boys.
100 girls to 115 boys.
Hill Stock:
Figures from Upper Telom, Upper Plus, Upper Prias and
Upper Jindera.
Unions
Male Children
Female Children
alive dead
alive
44
53 28
59
In/ant M01tality Rate
Fertility Rate
Survival Rate
Masculinity at Birth
0/ Survivals
28.7 %
3.57 pet married woman.
2.55 per married woman.
100 girls to 106.5 boys.
100 girls to 90 boys.
(N.B.-The healthier condition of the Hill Stock. H.D.N.)
dead
17