Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/824

* m:ai,ayai,im:. 732 MALAYAN PEOPLES. Both language and literature, as is the case with all tlie civilized Dravidian peoples, :ire being and have been considerably influenced by the modern and old Aryan dialects about them. The Malayalini, who number six or seven millions, have been converted to Hinduism, and a few to Christianity. , The first great work in Mala- yalani is the epic Ramiicharila, dating from the fourteenth century. A collection of 1000 Jlala- yalam proverbs was published at JIangalore in 18G8. Consult: Cust, .1 Hkclch of the Modern La>iyiiii;/cs of the East Indies (London, 1878); Cahlwell, A Com pa la live (Irnminur of the Dra- rididii or Houlh-lndiaii Family of Languages {-d cd., Ldiiilon, 187.5). See Dr.widians. MALAYAN PEOPLES. An ethnic term, diversel}' employed by various authorities. Some, who reject the claims of the JIalayan or brown race to rank as a separate division of mankind, on the ground that its Asian or Mongolian affini- ties are both too recent and too apparent, recog- nize a 'Malayic stock.' composed of a western or Jlalayan and an eastern or Polynesian group. (See .Malayo-Polyse.sian.) By this tlieory the ancient Malays, presumed to be yellowish-brown in complexion, small-statured and short-skulled, are connected with the Indo-Chinese peoples of continental Asia. Others, who also decline to see in the Malayan race one of the primal human stocks, consider the Malay type distinctly Mon- goloid. An 'Oceanic Mongol group' is postulated which includes all the peoples of Malaysia and the islands of the Pacific who arc- not Negritos, Papuans, or Indonesians (q.v. ). The population of Malaysia may be divided into four great ethnic groups. Malays, Indonesians, Xcgritos, and Papuans, while the archipelagoes of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific were peopled by three dis- tinct races of Malayan linguistic affinities. The Indonesians and Jlalays do not differ greatly from each other, and the former have been re- garded by some as proto-Malays. Certain writers, in view of the fact that dolichocephalic head- forms occur quite conniionly among the existing peoples of the East Indies, restrict the term Indonesian to the dolichocephalic variety of man found in this region. They would apply the term Malay or proto-Malay only to the bracliycepbalic non-Negrito. non-Pa])uan. and non-ilelanesian variety. According to this theory, before the dispersion over this area of the Orang Jlalayu. or Malays proper, most of the islands of the Malay Archipelago were inhabited by tribes represent- ing various degrees ot intermixture of these two races, while, neglecting migrations from the Asiatic continent, the last thousand years have witnessed nothing more than similar mixtures in varying degrees. The reasons for separating the so-called Indonesians from the Malayan or Malayo-Polynesian stock are not, however, con- vincing, and there is considerable justification for following the suggestion of the linguistic unity of the Malayo-Polynesian peoples and recog- nizing a somatic kinship of all the aborigines of Malaysia, together with the ^Malays of the Malay Peninsula and the JIalays of JIadagascar and the natives of Oceanica. except the Negritos. Papuan- Melanesians, and kindred peoples. F>esides their use in this broad sense the terms Malay and Malayan are also employed to designate in par- ticular the 'Malays proper' of the ^Inlay Penin- sula, the Menangkabau region of Sumatra, and certain other parts of some of the larger islands, and their representatives scattered in small num- bers practically all over the archipelago. There is also probably a considerable Malayan or proto- Mayalan element in certain regions of the coast of Farther India, the Chinese littoral, and South- ern Japan. There may also be a large Malayan element in .Japan and even in Korea, due ta immigration in the wake of the Kuro-Siwo cur- rent from the East Indies, by way of the Philip- pines, Formo.sa. and Loo-choo. Some writers go so far as to attribute the difTerence between the Chinese and the Japanese largely to the fact of this Malay cross in tlie latter. The Malayan peoples present all varieties of savagery, barbarism, ami civilization, from the lude tribes of the interior of some of the isl- ands to the more or less cultivated Mala3's of the coast, the Javanese, and the civilized peoples of the Philippines. The migration which led to the settlement of the Malays in Mad- agascar, called Malagasy or Hovas," took place apparently before the spreafl of Hindu inlluence in the East Indies, to which was in great meas- ure due the religious and political stinuilus that created so many kingdoms in Sumatra, Java, with the adjacent smaller islands, and Horneo. and touched even the Philippine Islands on one hand and New Guinea on the other. There have evidently been several waves of proto-Malaj- and Malay influence in this area. One of the most notable is that which bore the creed of Islam as far as the Moros of the southern Philippine Islands, and raised it upon the ruins of both the Hindu and the Buddhistic faiths in Sumatra and Java. The influence of India in Sumatra seems to have been less than in Java, where exist the remains of the great temple of Boro Budor. and other evidences of Indo-Malay culture. In the little island of Bali a form of Hinduism sur- vives to this day. In parts of Sumatra. Borneo, and Formosa very primitive types of Mp.iayaa life and culture are still to be found. All over the Malayan area the lanj^'viges of this family show a more or less close kinship with the standard Malay of Menangkabau. which is in many respects the least complicated dialect of the group. The relations of some of the For- mosan and Bornean dialects to the JIalayan stock are not j'ct very clear. Some authorities ( would attribute the affinity of the Polynesian languages with the Mala.van to a late spread of Malayan peoples and not to an original separa- tion from a common Malayo-Polynesian source,, but the latter view is to be preferred on present evidence. None of the Polynesians proper (ex- cept the civilized peoples) pos.sess written alpha- bets, but among the Malayan peoples a variety of them occur. The Malays proper, like the Philippine Moros. use Arabo-Persian alphabets that came with Islam. Among the civilized peo- ples of the Philippines, as the Tagals and Visay- ans, the alphabets in use since the thirteenth century seem to be of Indian origin, and the same statement holds regarding those of certain peoples of Celebes. The .Javanese and several of the Sumatran peoples have alphabets of Hindu or Arabic origin. The literary culture of the JIalayan peoples is in some sections quite ad- vanced, particularly in .Java, where the sacred books are preserved in the Kavi (q.v.) or ancient .Javanese language. In .Java, too, the puppet-show and the primitive drama are at home. The Macassars of Celebes have also de-