ITAPANES                              161                                      JAMBI

manufactures, trading with the inhabitants of the coast, dwelling in villages and being
decently clad. From their fairer complexions, and more industrious habits, the
Spaniards imagine them to be derived from Chinese settlers from the province of
Fokien, but this notion is probably without any foundation.

ITAPANES, the name of one of the wild tribes of th.e island of Luzon, inhabiting
the recesses of the mountains of the northern portion of the island. They are described
as short of stature, but well-made, and with darker complexions than their neighbours,
the Igorrotes, the Guimanes, the Busayas, and the Gaddanes—having large flat noses,
and round eyes. In stature, complexion, and shape of the nose, they are described as
resembling the Aetas or negritos, but in texture of hair and form of the eyes, the
Tagalas and other civilised inhabitants. From this seeming union, the Spaniards
infer that the Itapanes are a mixture of the negrito and Malay races, a notion, how¬
ever, for which there is, probably, no substantial foundation. They have been equally
difiicult to civilise as the Negritos themselves, with whom they have many customs
in common.

ITAS, or AETAS, the native name by which the diminutive negros of the Philip¬
pines are usually known.   See Negro and Aetas.

J.

JACATRA. An European corruption of the compounded Sanscrit word, Jaya¬
karta, signifying " work of victory," and the name of a town of the Sunda nation of
Java, on the site of which now stands the Dutch city of Batavia, founded in 1619.

JACK-FRUIT.   See Artocaepus.

JAKUN. This is a name of unknown origin and meaning, which the Malays
apply, seemingly as a generic term, to the wild tribes of the interior of the peninsula,
from Malacca, southward to Johor. All the men that go under this name have the
same physical form as the Malays, speak the same language in a ruder form, and
seem, in short, to be Malays, without the Mahommedan religion, and in a much lower
state of civilisation. The notion of some writers, founded on certain resemblances
of physical form, that the Jakuns are of Tartar origin, is, in the absence of all
historical or philological evidence, and when the two parties, supposed to be the same
people, are separated from each other by at least forty degrees of latitude, too
whimsical for serious consideration. The Malays of Sumatra continue, down to the
present day, to emigrate to and settle in the interior of the peninsula, and the great
probability seems to be, that in remote times, the peninsula was without any other
inhabitants than the negros of the mountains, and that all its brown-complexioned,
lank-haired people, whether of the sea-board or the interior, were emigrants from
Sumatra, or the islands lying between it and the peninsula.

JAMBI. The name of a Malay state on the north-eastern side of Sumatra, and
entirely within the great alluvial plain, which extends from the central chain of
mountains to the Straits of Malacca. This state was visited in 1820 by my friend,
the late Captain Crooke, a skilful surveyor, and a most careful and judicious observer,
and we possess, consequently, more correct knowledge of it than of any other por¬
tion of the same side of Sumatra. To the north-east, Jambi is bounded by the sea,
having in front the great group of islands which nearly blocks up the strait between
Sumatra and the continent,—to the north-west by the Malay state of Indragiri,—
to the east by the inland Malay states of Korinchi and Menangkabo, and to the
south-east by forests thinly peopled by the wild race of the Kubu, lying between
Jambi and Palembang. One large river of the same name as the state, and having
several considerable afifluents, runs through the whole country, having its origin in
the mountains. It bifurcates at 50 miles from the sea, and falls into it by two
mouths. The most easterly of these, shallow at its entrance, is in south latitude
1° 2! 30", and is called in the Malay language kwala-s^du, literally, " embouchure of
sobs." The most westerly, in Malay, kwala-nur, or " coco-palm mouth," is in 1° south,
and, although the smallest, is the most navigable. The face of the country is flat and
even, being nowhere diversified by mountains or hills. Towards the sea-coast it is
low, swampy, and subject to inundation, but, as it recedes from the shore, it becomes
proportionally elevated and dry. The land rises in an inclined plain from the sea
towards the great central chain of mountains, and at the town of Jambi, 60 miles

M