1 8 SOME NOTES ON THE SAKAI DIALECTS. 



English. 



Sen-oi 



Tem-be\ 



To hear 



Ger-tek 



Ke-yok 



A house 



Derk* 



Deli 



Good ; pretty 



Bor 



Meng 



Here 



Din 



Doh 



Great ; large 



En-toi 



Me-nu 



The numerals, which are a curious feature in Sakai dialects, 

 also differ in Sen-oi and Tem-be'. No Sakai can count, in 

 his own dialect, above three, and among the pure Sakai tribes 

 of the interior no words are in use to express four, five, etc., 

 a word which means " many, etc." being used for any number 

 greater than three. The Sakai who are met with near Malay 

 settlements have, for the most part, adopted the Malay nume- 

 rals up to ten, but this is merely another instance of the influ- 

 ence which the Malays have exerted on the manner of thought, 

 and consequently on the language of these savages. The 

 numerals as known to the pure Sakai are as follows : — 



English. Sen-oi. Tern-be* . 



One Na'-nu Neh 



Two Nar Nar 



Three Ne Ne' 



Many, etc. Kerp n Cha'-tuk n 



In only one case have I encountered a higher numeral than 

 three among any of the aboriginal dialects of the Peninsula. 

 The tribe in whose vocabulary a word for the numeral "four " 

 was found lived, in 1885, in the jungles near Sadang on the 

 geographical right bank of the Perak River, and consisted at 

 that time of only seven members. I was told by the father 

 of this family that he, his wife and his children were all who 

 survived of a comparatively large clan, which, I make little 

 doubt, will shortly be wholly extinct. Professor Max Muller 

 tells of a traveller in South America who saw a parrot which 

 was the only living creature that could speak some words of 

 a forgotten tongue. A vocabulary which I compiled of this 

 dialect will act the part of the parrot, and will shortly be the 

 only record that such a dialect was ever spoken by man. This 

 tribe called itself Semang as opposed to the Sakai tribes of 



