65 



The Gelok eucampmei.t consisted of three shelters so arranged as 

 to enclose an oval piece of ground some 25 feet by 15 feet. The 

 shelters, though leaning towards one another at a considerable angle 

 from the pei-pendicular, did not meet in the middle and left a space 

 about G feet wide open down the centre. One side of the hut was 

 occupied by the women and children and the other by the young 

 men, the ends being reserved respectively for, Toh Singha the 

 headman of the camp and a married couple. Altogether, thei-e were 

 13 people in the camp — one old man, one middle-aged man, three youths, 

 one small boy, one baby (male), one vei-y old woman, one middle- 

 aged woman, one young married woman, one girl of about 15, and 

 two small girls. The Negrito settlement at Ayer Balik was not 

 visited. The Lenggong camp was said to have been in use foi- more 

 than two months. A tire of logs placed radially was burning in every 

 shelter in both the encampments. 



TRIBAL NAME AND UBGANIZATION. 



The writer had great difficulty in obtaining the coirect name of 

 the tribe, one man, Sapi or Goh, informed him that the correct style 

 was Semang. On the other hand, Dahabok, the headman of the 

 Lenggong encampment, vigorously denied this and said that his 

 people should be called Sakai Jeram (Sakai of the rapids). The 

 latter of these names at any rate is pui'ely Malay. It seemed 

 impossible to ascertain the name used by the Negritos themselves, 

 but subsequently the writer obtained information from the aborigines 

 of Ijok in Selama, with whom several Lenggong men were living, 

 that the correct name for these people in the Lenggong dialect 

 was " Seinarkblviu,'' '''^ People of the big water''' (semark = men, blum = 

 big). The Ijok people called themselves " Menik gid," People of the 

 marsh or coast lands " (menik in the Ijok dialect = men). Many of 

 the aboriginal tribes of the Peninsula dislike the use of the names 

 Sakai or Semang, which are often used Ijy Malays as terms of 

 ridicule or opprobrium. Tamil coolies, who from their long hair and 

 habit of wearing a loin-cloth are objects of derision to the Malay, are 

 sometimes dubbed Sakai pekan or town Sakai. Not infrequently a 

 Malay will openly expiess his doubts as to whether the aboriginal 

 is a human being at all. 



The aboriginals knowing all this — and being very sensitive about 

 it — consider the term Sakai, which is used by the Malays to describe 

 most of the jungle tribes, abusive and prefer to be called by some 

 other name to which no stigma is attached, sucli as Orang Bukit 

 (Hill men), Orang Laut (Men of the sea), or Orang Sabat* (said 

 to mean friendly people). 



Possibly the difficulty experienced at Lenggong in obtaining the 



name of the tribe (as used by the Malays) was due to some such 



cause, though the Malays themselves seemed uncertain as to the 



correct designation which should be applied. The idea that the 



* Or Sa/iafea*.— H.C.R. 



