JU 
PAPERS OX MALAy SUhJECTS. 
different types; tliat in tlie north is adorned with 
elaborate luciseil patterns and is covered with a woven 
stopper or cap of tstiff black or dark green fern; while 
that in the south is plain and unadorned^ and has a soft 
and loose cover of light'Coloured matwork. Again, the 
Central tSakai preserves keenly the purity of hm race 
and is (in places) of a very distinctive and uniform 
physical type ; the Northern 8akai is not of uniform type 
and does not seem to possess the same feeling of race- 
jealousy. These are differences enough— apart from 
language, facial appearance, the long communal houses 
and the use of the bow — to justify the separate classifi- 
cation of the Northern and the Central Sakai. 
The bow should not, however, be regarded as the 
national weapon of the Northern Sakai. The blow-pipe 
has superseded it in daily use as the instrument with 
which tlie savage kills the bii'ds and small mammals that 
lie eats. Even as a weapon of war — and war is ex- 
tremely rare—pthe arrow is a clumsy and costly weapon 
when compared witli the dart. It is as a deterrent or 
terrific r that the bow is famous. With all deference to 
Mr. Cerruti, the Sakai dart has little penetrating power, 
does not fly far, and can be turned aside by a thick suit 
of clothes. Not so the arrow, '"which travels a great 
distance and inflicts a ghastly wound. Rare, clumsy and 
costly though its use may be, the Northern Sakai bow is 
knoT\Ti by name to tribes that neither see it nor make it ; 
and all their stories of the bow unite in locating it in the 
great mountain mass inhabited by the Northern Sakai. 
It is from these tribes, and from the Semang who trade 
with them, that every specimen of the Peninsular bow 
has been obtained. 
