SOME NOTES ON THE SAKAI DIALECTS. 27 



present day. The language being thus formed when the Malays 

 first arrived in the Peninsula would preclude the possibility of 

 the Malay language deriving elementary roots from Sakai 

 dialects. Among the Sakai tribes, too, sem-pa,' a durian, has 

 no connection with ter-ldk n , a thorn, and the names for the 

 other fruits are equally distinct, and seeing that even to the 

 present day the durian groves of the far interior are one of 

 the principal factors in the Sakai's annual food supply, it is 

 only to be expected that the name of so important an article 

 of food should be one of the first elementary words to be 

 embodied in the language of a primitive people dwelling in the 

 Malay Peninsula. 



But the evidence leads us further yet. Most people who 

 have travelled in the interior of the Peninsula have seen the 

 stone implements which are frequently discovered by the 

 natives. These implements, called batu halilintar or thun- 

 der bolts, by the Malays, who believe them to be the bolts 

 hurled from the heavens during storms, are of three kinds — 

 stone axes, shaped somewhat like the Malay bliong ; spear- 

 heads ; and choppers. At the present day similar tools 

 wrought in metal are sold to the Sakai by the Malays, but it 

 is a significant fact that they are all called by Sakai names 

 by the aborigines. The following are the names in 

 question : — 



English . 



Malay, 



Sen-oi. 



Tem-be! 



Axe 



Bliong 



Jek 



Jek 



Spear 



Lembing 



Ta-rok 



Be-lush 



Chopper 



Parang 



I-6'dz 



I-6dz 



Now, in spite of Voltaire's famous saying that " pour 

 Messieurs les etymologistes les consonnes ne lui coutent rien 

 et les voyelles bien peu de chose" I doubt whether any one 

 will maintain that any connection exists between the Malay 

 and aboriginal words for these implements But the Malays 

 also sell hatchets (kapak) to the Sakai, and this implement, 

 which has no equivalent among the stone implements of the 

 Peninsula, is called by the Malay name, hi'-pak being the 

 Sakai modified form. Now these facts, I contend, point to 

 the conclusion that at one time the tools made of stone were 



