ABSTRACT
Malays seem hardly more numerous than the Arabs and semi-Arabs that blend in appearance with the Muslim Bengalis. Malay women are not allowed out in the streets, as Muslim women are in Egypt and Java and other places where the struggle for a living in thickly populated centres has led to a breakdown of Muslim theory, at least as far as the poor are concerned. But the few Malay men who are visible, mostly lounging in corners, look like women to the visitor, because they all wear the national skirt or “sarong” practically down to their feet, with a feminine blouse or “baju” loosely hanging over that. Malay is the lingua franca of the country, even in the biggest towns of the Straits; indeed, many of the huge Chinese population in Singapore cannot speak any Chinese tongue, but use a rough variation of the native language called “baba Malay.”.
