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Updated: May 4, 2025
It would be impossible to take a real census of the Sakais owing to their distrust of everything they do not understand and the difficulty their nomadic life presents. The climate where they live, although damp, is good, for the thick foliage of the forest and the breezes that often hail from the mountains mitigate the heat of the sun's rays.
It is a pea-shooter but with the difference that the projectiles shot out are deadly in their effect, particularly so when in the hands of persons who, like the Sakais, seldom or never fail to hit the mark. This dangerous weapon, which at first might be mistaken for a toy, is ornamented with designs lightly incised in the cane.
It must be understood, though, that I speak only of the Sakais of the hills and not those of the plains who have in a great measure lost the characteristics which should distinguish them through their mixing with Kampongs, Malays and Chinese Ghedes. Evidently he has not perceived the passing away of nineteen or more centuries because they have left no inheritance for him.
Here are the necessaries for a variety of dishes, but the Sakais know no variety in the culinary art and with the exception of the fruit, the yams and potatoes that are cooked under the hot ashes, the whole lot is put, with a little water, into cooking-pots made out of large bamboo canes, and boiled up together into a kind of paste with pieces of serpents, rats, toads, lizards, beetles and other similar delicacies to give it flavour.
One day a family of these Sakais who have dealings with other races, rushed wildly into my hut, crying desperately. The parents, sobbing, told me that a Chinese, to whom they owed a great deal, had seized and led away their daughter. I set myself to find the blackguard and after some difficulty succeeded.
In fact the metal tempers and becomes very hard but I could not tell anyone what properties this slimy earth contains or how the Sakais came to know its value in connection with iron. I only know that they have to dig very deep in the ground before getting at it, a thing that is not either easy or agreeable owing to the lack of necessary implements.
If once the still lazy but honest forces of the Sakais could be utilized by turning them towards agriculture, all this natural wealth might be sent to the World's markets and a sparse but good people, susceptible of great progress, would be gradually civilized. The Para Rubber, referred to above, constitutes one of the greatest riches of the Malay agricultural industry.
It is the Mai Bretak tribe to whom all the other Sakais have recourse, carrying with them a large tribute of the goods usual in exchange. This speciality mixed with ipok is the Essence of Death in drops. The minutest particle that enters the blood means imminent extinction of life. The sentence is irrevocable for no remedy is known with which to avert it.
The five senses with the Sakais are practically reduced to two for whilst they are very quick in hearing and seeing, the same cannot be said of smelling, feeling and tasting. The acuteness of the two first is due to the continual need they have, in the forest, of keeping the ear and the eye open. To be on their guard against enemies they must either hear or see them.
The most frequent illnesses to which the Sakais are subject are rheumatic complaints and very heavy colds which not rarely turn into severe bronchial and pulmonary ailments. Both are due to the cold at night against which they take no pains at all to protect themselves. Their huts shelter them from the rain but not from the air. Some contagious skin diseases are also prevalent amongst them.
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