- Kiyoh, far off.
- Sika, come here, e g., Sika makan come here and eat.
The following words are probably all of Malay origin:
- Jengkeng or bidah, a boat (sampan or koleh).
- Lanchang, a sailing vessel.
- O-neh or O-ne, friend or comrade, used in addressing other members of the tribe whether young or old, e.g., O-neh Nan Kamana? Where are you going, friend? The O in Oneh may be merely interjectional.
- Diko = engkau, also used in addressing other tribesmen, but less polite or less friendly than O-ne.
- Pohon was used instead of Poko, tree, as on the East Coast and elsewhere.
The pronunciation was said to be peculiar, thus: s was pronounced like a soft z, e.g., Nazi for Nasi; r like h, e.g., Parang for Pahang; k like kh, e g., Khain for Kain; Khakhi for Kaki.
Too much stress however must not be laid upon these examples of pronunciation, as although what was heard is faithfully recorded, the personal equation enters too largely into this sort of questions for them to be accepted without repeated checkings. A Sakai, for instance, will occasionally pronounce one and the same word in two distinct ways, probably through nervousness at being questioned by an European.
Slight as these traces are, if taken in conjunction with the important fact that the constitution of these tribes corresponds fairly closely to that of Sakais (as is shown by the Sakai names of the chiefs) they appear to suggest the theory that the Sea-gypsies of Singapore owe their origin largely from Sakai hill-tribes in the Riau-Lingga Archipelago; that these, whether through pressure of the Malay immigration or from other causes, took to the sea, and reinforced probably by more than a sprinkling of mere Malay adventurers, developed into the famous piratical race which under the generic name of Orang Laut became for a space the terror of all who sailed these Eastern seas. Such an evolution of one of the mildest mannered and most timid races of the earth would certainly appear unaccountable, but if it is to be rejected, it involves us in still greater difficulties. The evidences may be briefly enumerated as follows.
(1.) The constitution of the tribe under Jinang and Batin.
