50 ABORIGINAL TRIBES OF PERAK. 



The men received a few trifling presents, and went away in 

 great delight. It was explained that what they principally fear in 

 visiting inhabited places is the ridicule and contumely heaped upon 

 them by the Malays. This is not astonishing, for at Sungei Haya 

 in the Kinta district, I was a witness, a few months ago, of the 

 kind of treatment Sahei men and women sometimes receive in a 

 Malay Jcampong. A Sahei man followed by two or three girls 

 (above the average in good looks, judging by a Malay standard) 

 who had come to see the Pengfilu, was literally hooted by all the 

 small boys of the kampong, who ridiculed his accents, his dress (or 

 rather his want of dress), his walk, and everything belonging to him. 

 From this state of things it follows that for trustworthy accounts 

 of Sakeis one must seek out the tribes in the forests and adopt a 

 line of original enquiry. Stories about Sakeis, received second-hand 

 from the Malays, are seldom worthy of implicit credit ; the aborigi - 

 nal tribes are interesting to the Malays only so far as they are 

 useful agents in clearing jungle, procuring gutta, or assisting in the 

 more questionable pursuit of child-stealing. 



