40 
PAPERS ON MALAY SUBJECTS. 
Sakai belief iiltogetber outside the radius of the tribe 
\vith uphich it is associated. The study of the present 
dialects and customs of the wld tribes has been used iu 
this pamphlet to differentiate between one aboriginal 
division atid another and to indicate where each can best 
be investigated. A more exhaustive study of customs 
and beliefs and a careful analysis of the languages may 
help us to go many steps further, and to speak with 
some measure of confidence about the past history of the 
Peninsula and the origin and relative antiquity of the 
tribes that inhabit it. 
PAET n.— THE CENTEAL SAKAI. 
As soon as the number of racial and Hnguistic 
divisions among the aborigines was known it was hoped 
that the investigation might be pushed a stage further 
by studying one of these divisions in detail at some 
convenient centre, for it was obvious that very little 
could be done by hasty visits to the wilder parts of the 
Sakai country. An opportunity presented itself in 
1909 when I found a 8akai who was willing to leave his 
native valley and to teach me his language. He became 
homesick fi^om time to time and had to be allowed 
frequent visits t-o and from his friends and relatives, but 
he remained with me for some three months of actual 
residence, giving me a vocabulary of some 2,500 words 
and a great deal of information about the manners and 
customs of his people. Of course the question suggests 
itself how far are this Sakai' s statements to be trusted ? 
I can only say that no leading questions were asked (a 
favourite source of error), and that all the information 
obtained from him was checked whenever possible bj 
