ABSTRACT
The Mantras are connected with one of those native tribes, remains of primitive races, who, in the peninsula as well as in the whole of Malaysia, were gradually driven back into the interior since the twelfth century, as fast as the Malays founded settlements on the coast. The different people of this peninsula appear to be connected with the yellow race of Oceania. The Mantras and Jokons are characterized by their crisp although not woolly hair, thick lips, very dark complexion, large mouth, wide nose, round and somewhat flat face, and slender limbs. In their general character the Mantras are good-natured and artless; they are gentle in their habits, and inoffensive; and their features at once inspire in the heart of the European a feeling of confidence, which is always refused to the Malays. The Mantras have no temples, altars, priests, or idols, nothing about them which has the semblance of outward worship.
