A CREW OF WRETCHED FUGITIVES. 253

CHAP. XIX.

A Crew of wretched Fugitives."Orang-laut," or Sea Gipsies. Low Civilisation of the "Orang-laut."

- Total Absence of all Religious Feeling. - Their Mode of Living. -The personal Appearance of Orang-laut. Dearth of fresh Water. Ordered to procure Water up the River. Parlis and Pirate Fleet. Interview with Haggi Loūng. Permission granted to procure Water. Tom West's Address to the Malays. — Paddle up the River. - Tropical Malayan Scenery. - Pass Kanah. - Obtain fresh Water.

LET us return, however, to Tamelan. I filled my water-casks with all the water that was procurable, and started out of the river. When crossing Setouè Bay a prahu was seen coasting along the edge of the jungle, and after a short chase we caught her. The people in her were devoid of the usual Malay clothing, and in a most abject condition; they described themselves as Orang-Patani, or people of Patani (a Malayu-Siamese province on the opposite coast), and said they were flying before the Siamese army.

My Malays owned they were countrymen, but

254

ORANG-LAUT, OR SEA GIPSIES.

spoke of them as barbarians of the lowest caste, pariahs of Malayia, and summed them up by the title of Bad People, or Gipsies, who make war alike by petty theft upon Malays or Siamese.

The specimens before us were decidedly very objectionable in every way: they were dirty to a degree, with a most villanous expression of countenance. After their first fear wore off, the women exhibited a most shameless want of modesty, and the men evinced a total absence of all jealous feeling for their wives or regard for their children; and yet, when one poor wretch offered me his two children for a half-bushel measure of rice, I could not help thinking their vices were the result of their sad, sad load of want and misery; and, giving them rice without taking their unfortunate offspring, we sent them on their way rejoicing.

These fugitives I believe to be identical with the Orang-laut, or Men of the Sea, spoken of by the earliest as well as modern writers when describing the different Malay races. Their proper home is in prahus, or canoes, although some of them occasionally settle upon the borders of the sea. Like the sons of Ishmael, their hand is against every man, and every man's hand against them. The Malay of more civilised communities holds them in contempt; and

ORANG-LAUT, OR SEA GIPSIES.

255

he is the only man who can be expected to have any sympathies with them. They are found haunting in small groups-for their numbers do not entitle them to the appellation of tribes the neighbourhood of our flourishing colonies, as well as the most secluded and barren places in Malayia. They are usually found east of the Straits of Malacca, although, as I have just shown, they reach the western side sometimes. Under fifty different names, they are known to the inhabitants of Siam, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and the Moluccas, and in all cases bear a bad reputa

tion.

The best description of them is given by a Mr. Thomson, a gentleman who has written on the archipelago. I take the liberty of transcribing it entire, and can testify to the truth of the account, in so far as they came under my own observation.

"This tribe takes its name, Salatar, from a creek in the island of Singapore, on the narrow strait which divides it from the mainland, not above eight miles distant from that flourishing and civilised British emporium. Its numbers are about 200, living in forty boats or canoes; and their range in quest of subsistence does not exceed thirty square miles. Their language is the Malayan, and considerable pains were taken to elicit any words foreign to that

256

STATE OF CIVILISATION.

language, but without success. As a proof of their possessing the same language as the Malays, I may mention that the children were heard, when playing, to converse in this language, and were perfectly understood by the Malays amongst our crew.

66

They are possessed of no weapons, either offensive or defensive. Their minds do not find a higher range than necessity compels: the satisfying of hunger is their only pursuit. Of water they have abundance without search. With the sârkab, or fishspear, and the parang, or chopper, as their only implements, they eke out a miserable subsistence from the stores of the rivers and forests. They neither dig nor plant, and yet live nearly independent of their fellow-men; for to them, the staple of life in the East, rice, is a luxury. Tobacco they procure by the barter of fish, and a few marketables collected from the forests and coral reefs. Of esculent roots, they have the prioh and kalana, both bulbous, and not unlike coarse yams. Of fruits, they eat the tampii, kledang, and buroh, when they come in season; and of animals, they hunt the wild hog, but refrain from snakes, ignanas, and monkeys.

“On their manners and customs I must need be short, as only long acquaintance with their prejudices and domestic feelings could afford a clue to the im

ORANG-LAUTS HAVE NO RELIGION. 257

pulse of their actions. Of a Creator they have not the slightest comprehension, a fact so difficult, to believe, when we find that the most degraded of the human race, in other quarters of the globe, have an intuitive idea of this unerring and primary truth imprinted on their minds, that I took the greatest care to find a slight image of the Deity within the chaos of their thoughts, however degraded such might be, but was disappointed. They knew neither the God nor the devil of the Christians or Mahometans, although they confessed they had been told of such; nor any of the demi-gods of Hindoo mythology, many of whom were recounted to them.

"In the three great epochs of their individual life, we consequently found no rites nor ceremonies enacted. At birth, the child is only welcomed to the world by the mother's joy: at marriage, a mouthful of tobacco and one chupah (gallon) handed to one another confirm the hymeneal tie: at death, the deceased are wrapped in their garments, and committed to the parent earth, The women weep a little, and then leave the spot,' were the words of our simple narrator. Of pâris, dewas, mâmbangs, and other light spirits that haunt each mountain, rock, and tree, in the Malayan imagination, they did not know the names, nor had they anything to be afraid of, as