Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. VI SAKAI {'BLANDAS') 275
crow can be heard over, and that only for so long as
he stays ; and, moreover, he lays claim only to the
products of the trees that he happens to have planted
during his temporary sojourn.^
Before the battle with the Rawa men, the Bataks,
or the Lubu men " (as the Sakai called them), an
attack was made on the Sakai from outside.
The Sakai had spread out alongside of the Malay
settlements when the attacks of the Bataks began.
These latter lasted for some years, and the outer
settlements in Perak had encountered them first. The
Sakai now report that their kinsmen were eaten by
the Bataks, and that it was from fear of this enemy
that they fled hither and thither in the jungle.
In this hasty flight their various tribes and families
were united. The pursuing Bataks went east to the
sources of the great Pahang river. Here lay many
settlements of the Kenaboi, and the Batin of the
latter determined to expel the heathen interlopers.
He therefore called all his fighting men together, hid
most of them in ambush in the jungle, and then
entered into negotiations with the leader of the
Bataks, and invited him and his companions to a
great feast. The Bataks came, but the crafty Batin
had mixed the poisonous fruit of the P'rah - tree ^
1 Vaughan-Stevens, ii. 89. gestion or colic ; but probably this
" The Rawa men, the Bataks, and danger is lessened when it is cooked.
the Lubu men are all Sumatran tribes, Mr. L. Wray also writes that he
the Bataks being cannibals. was warned by some Batang Padang
2 The fruit of the P'rah-tree, which Sakai not to eat " buah p'rah." They
resembles that of the Spanish chestnut, said it was poisonous unless it was
is certainly not poisonous under all cooked. Mr. Wray adds that he had
conditions, and it is in fact a favourite eaten them roasted many times. The
food of the Jakuns, though I myself P'rah-tree belongs to the ^/(-//i^/'^/ari^i^,
was one day warned by Jakuns of its many members of which order are
"poisonous" properties when tasting poisonous. The bright red young
it. I believe the fact is that it is ex- leaves of the P'rah-tree are cooked and
tremely liable to produce violent indi- eaten by the Sakai as a vegetable.