The Sakais of Batang Padang, Perak. 



By G. B. Cerkuti. 



The word Sakai is the Malay name for the aborigines w'io 

 inhabit the forest on the high slopes of the lower half of the 

 main ridge and some subsidiary ridges of mountains of the 

 Malay Peninsula. As the Malays were the first to come into 

 intercourse with these aborigines, the influence of the Malay, 

 as well as the fear of them, is strong upon them. Malay his- 

 tory in Perak reaches with certainty no farther back thin the 

 16th century, and Malays have no written records relating to 

 the Sakais, whom they treated as slaves and less than human 

 beings. 



The Sakais themselves have neither written records nor 

 signs to represent language, whatever information regarding 

 their origin is supplied by ihem rests solely in tradition. 



The narrative of events, which is extracted from them with 

 difficulty, very seldom passes beyond the time of a grand- 

 father, and may be regarded as inexact if not incoherent. 



We shall, therefore, have to look for knowledge of their 

 origin to the results of a morphological study of the race. 



Physical Characters. 



The average height of the male Sakai may be taken ap- 

 proximately at 5 ft. 3 in : and that of the female at 4 ft. 11 in : 

 These figures are for the present only tentative. The colour 

 various from a light to a chocolate-brown, the eyes are slight- 

 ly almond shaped, the nose is flat, the forehead straight, the 

 lips full and separate, but not negro like, the teeth regular 

 and well-formed though blackened by sireh, the hair copious, 

 black, somewhat wavy, occasionally crisp, but never woolly. 

 The senses are unusually keen and well developed. In his na- 

 tive jungle he sees better, hears better, and apparently uses his 

 sense of smell better than other races. His touch is delicate 

 and sensitive, as is that of most savage races, and his sense of 



R. A. Soc, No 41, 1904 7 



