24 
PAPERS ON MA LAV SUBJECTS. 
all tlie evidence that Itas been collected about the Central 
Sakai I am not satisfied that we knovir enonglu^ 
It must be remembered also that the Central Sakai 
families do not wander at will over the whole of the area 
where their language is spoken ; they coiiftne themselves 
to the valleys in which they were born. The Mai Darat 
commnnities Hve in the lower valleys; the Mai Bertah 
and Mni Miloi are known to oecnpy certain portions 
of the higher slopes. All these are kindred "Central 
Sakai " tribes. But we ai*e not in a position to say that 
the whole of the mysterious upper country is occupied 
by the Mai Bh tah and Mai Miloi, It may be otherwise. 
And until we krfow more about the Northern Sakai — the 
most highly civilised yet the least known of all the Sakai 
races — it would be unsafe to dogmatise too freely about 
the ethnological position of their nearest relatives, 
the well-known C'Cntral Sakai of the Batang Paddng 
mountains. 
THE DESISU 
AYhen the Portuguese were in possession of Malacca 
they found that their hinterland was occupied by two 
aboriginal races, the Cellates who are marked on the old 
maps as inhabiting Sungei I Jong and the Benua of 
Mount Ophir and beyond. There is some doubt as to 
the Malay equivalent of Cellates. The word has been 
interpreted vanously as Oranrj Lavi^ Orang S^Iltar and 
Ora')}ff SfVat, but none of these explanations can be 
regarded as adequate. The territory inhabited by tlie 
Cellates is that occupied by the aboriginal Besisi and not 
by the Oimiff Laid or Orang Selifar who live elsewhere, 
* Since writing- tiji? iiboYO I liave lennit from ti JBuri>iif>tin (*yo-witnPS8 of the 
pxistciu'c of ti coramtinal liouae--with five henrtb»— on llie mountains behind UIii 
Vani in St^'lniiiror; Thifi oxtpnfi!* Xortli 8akni nrea a lon|j yeny sotithwai'tl 
though atiil cottiiDitig it to the higher ranges. 
