Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/171

 the Archipelago further south. In many localities the offspring of the earlier invaders have resisted conversion to Muhammadanism, and are regarded by the Malays of to-day as part of the aboriginal pagan population of the Peninsula; but the people of the Těmběling valley have embraced the faith of Islam, and their origin is not suspected by themselves or their neighbours. It is clearly to be traced, however, in certain peculiar customs that have been preserved among them, and by the use of a few local words, not generally understanded of the people of the Peninsula, but common enough in northern Borneo and other parts of the Archipelago.

The Tĕmbĕling Valley is bisected by a set of rapids, which render navigation excessively difficult for a distance of some five miles, and above which large boats cannot be taken. Below this obstruction, the natives are chiefly noted for the quaint pottery which they produce from the clay that abounds there, and the rude shapes and the ruder tracery of their vessels lave probably suffered no change since the days when the men who dealt with the middle men who trafficked with Solomon's emissaries, sought gold and peafowl and monkeys in the fastnesses of the Malay Peninsula—as everybody knows. Above the rapids the natives, from time immemorial, have planted enough gambir to supply the wants of the entire betel-chewing population of Pahang; and as the sale of this commodity brought in a steady income, they were for the most part too indolent to plant their own rice. Rice being the staple of all