Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

I SUMMARY OF SAKAI CULTURE 65
gained. Like the Semang they not unfrequently live
in tree - huts or other temporary forms of shelter.
Their men wear the tree-bark loin-cloth, and their
women a tree-bark wrapper, except, of course, where
they have borrowed Malay clothing. They tattoo
the face, the design commonly taking the form of four
gradually converging lines drawn from the region of
the ear to the root of the nose, with perhaps a sort of
pitchfork design incised upon the chin. These designs
are sometimes marked out in rows of black and white
dots (in lieu of scarification) ; with these may be con-
nected their black and white bead -necklaces. Both
scarification and body-painting take, however, various
forms, the latter having been developed into a regular
system. They do not circumcise, and seldom file the
teeth, but they not unfrequently wear a metal ring or a
porcupine quill inserted through the septum of the nose.
Their distinctive weapon, like that of the Jakun,
is the bamboo blowpipe, which they have brought to
great perfection.
They have no form of boat, nor do they even as a
rule use rafts.
^
Their musical instruments are very fairly similar
to those of the Semang, and, like the latter, they not
unfrequently engage in the barter of jungle products.
Their agriculture is of the most primitive description,
their chief implement (for breaking-up the soil) being
a pointed stick.
Of their religion very little is at present known-
less even than of that of the Semang. There is,
however, a kind of deity whom they call Tuhan, and
who appears somewhat analogous to the Kari of the
Semang. Their alleged totemism is quite unproved.
1 Hale, p. 286.
VOL. I F