SOME NOTES ON THE SAKAI DIALECTS, 1 5 



which actually keeps a Malay Pendekar to teach the young 

 idea the art of Malay fencing ! This is an exceptional case, 

 but, as a rule, when a Sakai has come to wear clothes he is 

 morally a ruined man. 



Among these clans the dialect spoken is so interspersed 

 with Malay words and phrases, as to be merely a bastard form 

 of the original tongue, and it is not from them that we can 

 learn what the pure Sakai language is. A study of such 

 mutilated dialects, except as a means of watching the rapid 

 decadence of a barbarous tongue, would not repay the labour. 

 Fortunately there is one large district in the Peninsula which 

 is still purely Sakai country, the only permanent inhabitants 

 being all of the Sakai race. This district is situated in almost 

 the exact centre of the Peninsula, and comprises the head 

 waters of the Jelai, Telom, and Serau Rivers in Pahang, the 

 ulu of the Batang Padang, Bidor, Kampar, and Plus Rivers 

 in Perak, and of the Galas and Nenggiri Rivers in Kelantan. 

 This large tract of country having from time immemorial been 

 almost exclusively peopled by Sakai, it is here alone that the 

 pure Sakai is met with, and then only in the interior of the 

 district, in places where the Malay language is still unknown, 

 Here we find the Sakai tongue spoken as it has been spoken 

 for generations, and containing comparatively few Malay 

 words, or signs of the influence of the Malay language. Out- 

 side influence, as is well known, is a great modifier of all 

 languages, and more especially of the dialects of a wholly 

 unlettered people, and it is, therefore, a matter of some inter- 

 est to find the Sakai in those places where such influence has 

 scarcely had an opportunity of being brought to bear upon him, 

 or where such disturbing elements have been reduced to an 

 absolute minimum. Comparison with the dialects spoken by 

 the scattered tribes, who have long been surrounded by Malays, 

 shews that in the pure Sakai dialects many words are found 

 which have been replaced by Malay words among the former 

 tribes, and that the general purity of the language has been 

 much destroyed by the introduction of foreign words or 

 phrases. 



For these reasons, I shall deal chiefly with the two 



