Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

SAKAI OF PERAK 63
by Vaughan-Stevens as to the rules of descent as regards sub-clan names, but
paternal descent appears to be the general rule. From the fact that the sub-
clans were local in their character, we may also infer that in respect of the subtotems
the rule was to take them from the father. The children of a Batin
formed an exception to the ordinary rule. Only the elder took his father's
totem ; the next four belonged each to one of the remaining primary totem-clans.'
The rule of descent as regards the sub-tribes wgs as follows. If a Besisi man
married a Sakai woman, she and her children became Besisi. In the case of the
Batin, however, an exception was again made. For three generations the sul)tribe
^ of the Batin was prepotent, and the man who married into it
tribal name, and took that of his wife.^
lost his own
We have no information as to whether members of the same clan or sub-clan
are regarded as akin, or whether the sub-tribe is by the Sakai regarded as the
kinship group. Nor is it clear how far kinship is a bar to marriage. Vaughan-
Stevens remarks that the customs of the Sakai and Pangan are very similar to
those of the Jakun and Orang Laut, who were compelled to take a wife from
another community.* In the same passage, however, he expressly says that the
Pangan are not restricted as regards their choice of wives, thus contradicting
the assertion that local exogamy is in force among them. The evidence is there-
fore worthless.
As regards the Sakai, however. Hale says that the Kinta Sakai generally
went a considerable distance to seek their wives— to a tribe who spoke quite a
different dialect. Elsewhere Vaughan-Stevens says,^ the Sakai usage was for the
son-in-law to build his house on his father-in-law's land, but this of course does
not exclude the possibility that he belonged to the same local group. ^ We may
perhaps infer that the same custom prevailed among the Tembeh. Vaughan-
Stevens tells us that although no definite rule appeared to exist, the son-in-law
and mother-in-law avoided one another in practice as much as possible. '^
This
may of course mean that the son-in-law and mother-in-law belonged to the same
local group ; we cannot infer a custom of exogamy from it, but it points to the
two families being in close proximity.
In estimating the value of the account given by Vaughan-Stevens, we must
bear in mind that he is inclined to group
hypothesis for the adoption of which he can
his facts from the standpoint of a
give no sufficient reason.^ We are
expressly told ^ that it was only after lengthy observation that he arrived at the
results given above, and that the system here displayed is his theory, based on
many single observations, and not a connected traditional account handed down
by the Sakai. Such a traditional account would probably not be entirely
reliable ; an observer like Vaughan-Stevens, with no knowledge of scientific
terminology, and not much critical sense, i** would have done better to give us his
data rather than his conclusions. In his account, summarised above, traditional
' Z.f.E. xxvi. 160. " Z./;Z;'.xxviii. 180.; cp. p. 203, ?«yra.
^ Here again the word totem is used ® Cf. his treatment of the question of
by Griinwedel (or Vaughan-Stevens) to patterns. ^ Z.f. E. xxvi. 150.
mean sub-tribe. As both husband and '** Vaughan - Stevens explains elsewife
were of one clan, he could not where {Z.f. E. xxviii. 175) that he
change his clan ; a change of sub-clan means by exogamy, marriage outside
would be possible, but seems to be the family, not marriage outside the
excluded by the context. tribe. He suggests (Z./". E. xxvi. 160),
2 It does not appear whether this that all three sub-tribes, Sakai or Senoi,
was accompanied by the removal of the Kenaboi, and Besisi, were a sub-group
husband to his wife's group, and his of the Leaf clan. Against this may be
incorporation in it. set the statement that the original
* Z.f. E. xxviii. 174. purpose of the totem marks was to
P. 291. distinguish articles of property {loc. cit.
^ Vaughan-Stevens, ii. 90. p. 151).