30 VOCABULARY OF THE JAKUNS. 



do not call themselves Jakims, that word being a term of oppro- 

 brium if applied to them within their hearing. Curiously enough, 

 the Sakais also resent the application of the word Sakai to them, 

 and like the Sakais again, they call themselves Orang Ufa, up- 

 country people. The Malays in their dealings with the Jakuns, 

 call them Pa angkat (adopted father) Ma an ghat (adopted 

 mother) ach'k angkat (adopted younger brother) and so on as 

 the case may be. This pleases them hugely, though not to the 

 extent of inducing them to part with their stock any cheaper or 

 in greater quantity. For all that, they are very much harrassed 

 and robbed by the Malays, in particular by those who have 

 some authority over them. In my journeys into the interior of 

 Batu Pahat, I have often had patiently to listen to the com- 

 plaints of these men against their Malay oppressors, many of 

 undoubted genuineness, without however having the power to 

 render any relief. 



It may not perhaps be generally known that the Jakuns 

 practice the rite of circumcision, but in a way peculiar to them- 

 selves. They do not, like the Mohammedans, remove the whole 

 skin, but merely part the upper folds of the prepuce by a longi- 

 tudinal cut or incision, causing the rest to drop into a bunch below. 

 Asked as to the reason for this peculiar rite, the oldest man 

 present related to me the following legend. Very many years 

 ago, when the whole country belonged to them and they were 

 under the rule of a great Batin (King of their own. as great as 

 the Sultan of Johore,) this great Batin had a wife who for a long 

 time remained childless. At length, a male, child was born to 

 them, who after thriving for some time sickened and was on 

 the point of death. On consulting a Pawang (Diviner or Sor- 

 cerer) who happened in this case to have been a Mohammedan 

 Malay, he declared that the only means of saving the youth's 

 life was by circumscision. To this the great Batin demurred 

 but vowed that if his child recovered, he would becircumscised. 

 He got well and the operation was in due time performed 

 but in order that he might not thereby be held to have embrac- 

 ed the Mohammedan faith, this peculiar style was adopted, 

 the fiat having in the meantime gone forth that all male Jakun 

 children were in future to undergo this operation in the manner 

 indicated above, which explains the existence of this peculiar 



Jour. Straits Branch. 



