A Malay-English dictionary,

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INTRODUCTION.
MALAY HISTORY AND LITERATURE.
The original home of the Malay race-or, to speak more precisely, the country in which the
Malays first differentiated themselves from kindred races-was probably in Central Sumatra.
A Sumatran origin can be traced in history or legend for the inhabitants of Riau, Johor,
Malacca, Pahang and Selangor, and for the " Menangkabau " communities dwelling in Naning
and in the modern "Negri Sembilan." The history of the Northern States of the Peninsula is
somewhat obscure, and the circumstances under which they came to be founded are not
sufficiently explained by the little we have of royal genealogies and popular folk-lore. It
would appear, at least, that the Malays are not indigenous to the country. In the mountains
of the interior there are found aboriginal tribes of at least two very distinct racial types. Many of
these aborigines speak a language akin in some respects to ancient Cambodian (Khmer). Some
old civilisation can also be traced in mining-shafts constructed with forgotten skill, in rockinscriptions (in Kedah, Province Wellesley, Singapore and the Karimon Islands), and in curious
clay tablets, stamped with undeciphered lettering, which have been found in old Kedah graves.'
The traditions of the last mentioned state recognize three periods in its history: (i) the modern
period dating from the arrival in Kedah of the first king, Marong Mahawangsa; (2) the heroic
age to which the unpublished tales of men like "Trong Pipit" and "Selampit " belong;
(3) the age of the demi-god Sri Rama. Indeed Marong Mahawangsa's followers are represented
as having intermarried with the Gergasi aborigines so that no claim is put forward for the
indigenous character of the Malayan element in Kedah. It also seems reasonable to infer by
analogy that that element in the North as well as in the South of the Peninsula was introduced
by emigration from the Sumatran coast.
The alteration of trade-routes through the use of steam-power has obscured the fact that
the Straits of Sunda and not those of Malacca were until quite recently the door of communication between the West and the Far East. It was, no doubt, by this route that the silks of
China found their way to the markets of the Roman Empire. Who were the pioneers of this
very ancient trade? Fa Hien, a Chinese monk, who travelled (A.D. 400) through Tibet and
i These tablets are in the Raffles Museum. I was also shown (I9OI) photographs of two curious bronze vessels
(possibly bells) dug up at Klang, and a copy of a curious old book said to be the sacred book of a community near
Singgora. I was also given by Kedah Malays a series of numerals said to be the ancient numerals of their country.!

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