Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

SAKAI OF PERAK 263
fall violently in love with him. She seemed to have lost
all her reason, for she fled into the jungle calling for
her Sakai lover, whom, after days of wandering in the
wilds, she at length found at his home in Bertang.
Jaja' had had two children by her Malay husband,
called Kulop Perak and Si Mat respectively ; and
now by her Sakai husband she in due time had two
children, who grew up in Bertang as Sakai. When
her Malay husband returned from his trip to the sea,
he at first made vain endeavours to have his wife
restored to him, but failing to recover her, he gave up
the search. Nevertheless her Malay sons, Kulop
Perak and Si Mat, felt the reproaches of the villagers,
that their mother had gone to live as a Sakai, very
much. They therefore went to Bertang where they
found their mother with her Sakai family. It took a
great deal of persuasion to bring her away from
there, but at last they succeeded, and she left in the
company of Kulop Perak and Si Mat, leaving her
Sakai husband and children (whose names are now
forgotten) behind. But the nearer she approached
her former home, the more reluctant she became to
proceed. The thought that the villagers would
reproach her for her escapade began to be more and
more oppressive to her, and therefore, when almost
in sight of her former home, she drowned herself in a
little rivulet which they had to cross. Her body was
easily recovered by her children, and she was buried
close by, but her name is still attached to the river,
which goes under the name of Sungei Jaja'. Her
Sakai children became the ancestors of the Sakai, who
related this story, and who attribute the high stand-
ing of their family to their partly Malay descent
through Jaja' the Malay.