Such customs as the singular practice of filing the teeth and dying them black, noticed by the authors who have written on Pegu, Siam, Camboja and Tonquin, and prevailing generally throughout the whole Malayan archipelago; the practice of distending the perforated lobe of the ear to an enormous size, noticed in like manner to exist in the same parts of the peninsula, and prevailing throughout the archipelago, in a greater or less degree in proportion with the extension of Islamism; the practice of tattooing the body, noticed among the Burmans and people of Laos, common to many tribes in Borneo, and particularly distinguished in some of the islands in the Pacific Ocean of tattooing, betray a common original; and if it is recollected that this custom, as well as that of plucking the beard, was noticed in south America, the question may arise, in what course or direction the tide of population has flowed. In a recent publication, an idea has been started, in reference to the similarity of the languages, that the population of the Philippines and of the islands in the south sea originally emigrated from America. It will not be required of me to go into any description of those singular appendages to the virile member, noticed by the writers on Pegu, Siam and Camboja, and adopted among many tribes of Borneo and the Moluccas. Whatever may have been the origin of this very singular custom, traces are to be found, even in Java, of the veneration in which it once was held. The practice of triumphing over a subdued enemy may be common to the barbarous state in general; but the deliberate system of man-hunting, in order to procure heads as a trophy of manliness and military gallantry, however it may have originated in this feeling of uncivilized nature, may be ranked among the peculiarities of this portion of the globe.
The language of the different tribes of Borneo is ascertained to bear a strong resemblance to that of the scattered tribes of Camboja, Champa and Laos. The position maintained by Mr. Marsden, that the Malayan is a branch or dialect of the widely extended language prevailing through the islands of the archipelago to which it gives name, as well as those of the south sea, appears to be established and confirmed as our information advances; and, if we except the Papuas, and scattered tribes having curled hair, we find the general description given of the persons of the Siamese and the ruder population of the adjacent countries, which have not admitted any considerable admixture from the Chinese, to come very near to the inhabitants of the archipelago, who, in fact, may be said to differ only in being of a smaller size, and in as far as foreign colonization and intercourse may have changed them.
To trace the sources whence this colonization and consequent civilization flowed, and the periods at which it was introduced into
