48 
PAPEJ?S ON MALAY SUBJECTS, 
eclipse of the moon. Yet tbe term for an eclipse ^ shows 
that the Bakai have accepted the old Indian legend of 
the moon being swallowed by the dragon Baku. Even 
in dealing with so primitiTe a tribe as the Mai Miloi 
it is impossible to escape from traces of alien influence. 
Now and then a strange custom is revealed for which 
no parallel can be traced at the moment : still, we cannot 
be sure that it is confined to the tribe. The women 
of the Mai Miloi are reported to cut off their tresses 
whenever the giant-bamboo sheds its leaves. A rainbow 
is said to be created out of the blood of a tiger's victim 
and to iMSe from the spot where the victim has been 
slain. Such practices and beliefs seem imique — that is 
all that we can assert at present. 
Turning from the religions to the political system 
we find that the smallest political unit among the 
Central Sakai is the family-group. Every family — by 
which is meant a living patriarch and all his descendants, 
and not a mere menage of husband and wife, — keeps 
together and keeps to itself; it does not unite with 
others for mutual protection and social intercourse* 
Exogamy means marrying into another family, not into 
anotlier tribe. A number of these family-units living 
within a definite area and recognising a common heredit- 
ary chief make up the Sakai State — if sucli a term is 
l^ermissible in the cas^^ of so small a community. Among 
the Mai Darat the chief is described by the Malay term 
Feiighdn (headman) and may even bear a high-sounding 
title such as Maharaja Belia Indera, Chief of the Uln 
Kampar Sakai, or To' Sang, Head of the Bujang Malaka 
Sakai. Among the Mai Miloi and Mai BMak the 
Chief*s designation is ra'mu. A ra*7iati settles disputes 
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