FASCICULI MALATENSES 
47 
there is among the Semangs ; the former being also broken up into small 
camps, which do not, however, owe allegiance to any Malay master. In two 
cases head-men told us that they had been appointed by a European. 
A man may not marry a girl belonging to his own camp, but, in some 
cases, it is probable that he becomes, temporarily at least, a member of his 
wife’s camp. Monogamy appears to be the almost universal rule, though a 
head-man may have two or even three wives, and the Sakais told us that they 
saw no objections, other than economic, to polygamy. The women are kindly 
treated, and we noticed that on a journey they usually walked first, and that 
their burdens were at any rate no heavier than those of the men. Children are 
carried either in baskets on their mother’s back, or slung across the hip in Malay 
fashion. The families are small. Fathers are often called after their children, 
as Pa Gedong ( i.e ., Gedong’s father). Married men take the title Ba (uncle). 
The Sakais have the reputation of being both timid and inoffensive, but 
we found many of the wilder folk at Telom almost truculent in their de- 
meanour. The Malays admit that the cunning and dishonesty the Mai Darat 
now display is due to contact with themselves. Like most primitive people 
Sakais are very improvident and also very hospitable. They are jealous of 
the honour of their women, as already noted, and instances have occurred of 
Malays having been wounded, if not killed, on this account. 
The Government of the Federated Malay States recognizes the 
‘aborigines’ as lords of the soil, in so far that it does not force them to take 
out licences for collecting jungle produce or mining tin, but the same duty is 
levied on both vegetable and mineral produce when it is bought from the 
Sakais or Semangs as when it is collected by men of any other race. In South 
Perak the Perak Government recently appointed a ‘ Superintendent of Sakais,’ 
whose duties, however, were largely subservient to those of the Forestry 
Department, of which he ranked as an official. The first superintendent 
appointed was an Italian gentleman, of the name of Cerruti, who had gained 
considerable influence over the Sakais of the district in a private capacity, and 
had also had much experience of primitive races in the Malay Archipelago. 
Through the kindness of Mr. J. P. Rodger, C.M.G., the British Resident of 
Perak, Mr. Cerruti was instructed to accompany us during the greater part 
of our stay in South Perak, and we are indebted to him not only for many 
valuable specimens, but also for the pains he took in connexion with our 
journey to Telom. We have already hinted that the relations between the 
Malays and the Sakais are often strained, and, indeed, until recently slave- 
raids among the wild tribes were considered quite legitimate by the Mahom- 
medan population of Perak. It is possible that the practice is, even now, not 
