Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. VI SAKAI {'BLANDAS') 277
yielded in every point and withdrew his threatenings,
the Sakai again dispersed.
Raging at this check, Guntar, while he simulated
friendship for the Sakai, made secret overtures to the
Rawa, who for a long time had carried on trade with
the west coast, without having any regular settlement.
Guntar promised to give the Rawa the land of the
Sakai and certain presents if they would drive them
away. The Rawa accepted, and soon many of them
came to the Peninsula and attacked the Sakai in
their own homes at night, thrusting their spears up
through the floor and killing the men as they hurried
out. Women and children they sold to the Malays,
who must therefore have known of the design. The
Sakai sought to drive the intruders out of Selangor.
Many battles took place, in one place with success.
They had taken up a position at Bukit Guling Batang,
and rolled rocks and stones from the screes down on
the attacking Rawa, who were obliged to retreat.
Since the Rawa had better weapons, they killed many
and took many into slavery, and in the confusion the
Sakai fled in all directions into the jungle, where the
Rawa did not venture to follow them.
This is the cause of their wide dispersal, the destruction
of their race, and the difl"erence that shows
itself in the customs of the separated branches of the
race.
Here and there one finds in the remote hill-
country small settlements of Sakai of comparatively
pure race, but on the whole their original mode of
life and early customs have either been given up or
very much modified.^
According to tradition, enmity broke out in the
* Vaughan-Stevens, ii. 92. These legends cannot, of course, be taken as history.