Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay

“ Wandering isolated in the forests, they had but few opportunities to hold any dealings with the Malays; and naturally kept more exclusively to their own lan- guage than those who trafficked with the Malays more frequent- ly, and lived in their neighbourhood. Thus it happened that in preserving the old language (going as it did hand in hand with primitive habits of life) they found a secret means of bringing to their homes a rich booty from the jungle. This superstition is believed in various parts of Johor, and will, for a long time, protect the ancient language from total extinction ”

“ During my excursion in the Peninsula whenever I came across a number of men I gathered them round me, and listening attentively to them I took down as many words as possible that were not Malay. In order to collect the following scanty vocabulary I always held quite a "Council," for only a few old men remembered any of the words of their fast disappearing language. [2]
These I have shewn to several Malays who know their own language well. All declare that they are not Malay words ”

“ Leading a nomadic life, these people retire before the influx of Malaydom into the mountains and forests of the Peninsula, and have thus kept themselves free from intermix- ture, still retaining their own language.
I had the good fortune to find these people in many other places, and I have not failed during my Anthropological studies to collect as many words as possible of their dialects, although a naturalist cau do little with the materials of language. ”