THE PAGAN RACES OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 3 



remain at present doubtful. The Jakuns have been stated to 

 be aboriginal Malays who refused to accept Mohammedanism 

 and therefore fled to the interior to avoid persecution. The 

 author points out however that they are rather a composite 

 group of heathen Malays mixed with Semang and Sakai, and 

 this is probably the case. 



The methods of hunting, trapping and fishing, the wea- 

 pons, cultivation, food, arts and crafts, social order, dealings 

 with other races fill the first volume, which terminates with an 

 appendix containing much important matter in measurements, 

 color of hair, eyes, and skin and a large collection of Sakai 

 songs chiefly collected by Mr. Skeat. Many of these are hunt- 

 ing songs describing the chase and capture of about all the 

 jungle animals. Most songs end with a request to give each of 

 the community a portion of the prey. This is a true charac- 

 teristic touch of the socialism of the Sakai community. I re- 

 member once being out with some of the wild tribe of the 

 Kuala Lumpur district near the well known caves, In the 

 party were two men and one delightful little boy of about nine 

 years of age clad as most of the men were in the simple cos- 

 tume of a strip of trap bark about as broad as a bootlace, and 

 an armlet of fungus. While at tea we offered the child some 

 bread and jam which he took eagerly and ran off at once to 

 divide it with his father. When given a cigar he would not 

 take it till he had another one for his father, showing the in- 

 nate socialistic tendency of the race. 



But to return to the songs after this digression. One is 

 struck at first sight by the graphic descriptions of the habits of 

 the animals, their appearance and cries. Some of the songs 

 and charms too have an element of poetic feeling running 

 through them. 



In many cases the language of the Besisi from whom the 

 author has derived most of the songs and charms is a mixture 

 of Malay and Sakai words, the meaning of some of the latter 

 being obscure. Mr. Skeat has translated them as literally and 

 carefully as may be, though perhaps it might have been better 

 not to have called the Kijang, the Roedeer, or if no other 

 translation was to be found, to have explained what the ani- 



E. A. Soc, No. 49, 1907. 



