them.

[Footnote 3: _Semang_ = Aboriginal natives of the Peninsula,
belonging to the Negrit family.]

[Footnote 4: _Sakai_ = Aboriginal natives of the Peninsula,
belonging to the Mon-Annam family.]

The Malay States on the East of the Peninsula are Senggora, Petani,
Jambe, Jaring, Raman, Legeh, Kelantan, Trengganu, Pahang, and Johor.

Senggora possesses the doubtful privilege of being ruled by a Siamese
Official, who is appointed from Bangkok, as the phrase goes, to
_kin_--or eat--the surrounding district.

The next four States are usually spoken of collectively as Petani, by
Europeans, though the territory which really bears that name is of
insignificant importance and area, the jurisdiction of its _Raja_ only
extending up the Petani river as far as Jambe. It is said that when the
Raja of Petani and the ruler of the latter State had a difference of
opinion, the former was obliged to send to Kelantan for his drinking
water, since he could not trust his neighbour to refrain from poisoning
the supply, which flows from Jambe through his kingdom. Uneasy indeed
must lie the head which wears the crown of Petani!

All the States, as far down the coast as Legeh, are under the protection
of the Siamese Government. Kelantan and Trengganu still claim to be
independent, though they send the _bunga amas_--or golden flower--to
Bangkok once in three years. Pahang was placed under British Protection
in 1888, and Johor is still independent, though its relations with the
Government of Great Britain are very much the same as those which
subsist between Siam and the Malay States of Kelantan and Trengganu.

The _bunga amas_, to which reference has been made above, consists of
two ornamental plants, with leaves and flowers, fashioned from gold and
silver, and their value is estimated at about $5000. The sum necessary
to defray the cost of these gifts is raised by means of a _banchi_ or
poll-tax, to which every adult male contributes; and the return
presents, sent from Bangkok, are of precisely the same value, and are,
of course, a perquisite of the _Raja_. The exact significance of these
gifts is a question of which very different views are taken by the
parties concerned. The Siamese maintain that the _bunga amas_ is a
direct admission of suzerainty on the part of the _Raja_ who sends it,
while the Malay Sultans and their Chiefs entirely deny this, and hold
that it is merely _tanda s'pakat dan ber-sehabat_--a token of