Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

SAKAI OF PERAK 343
Agriculture.
The Hill Sakai (Sakai Bukit) are said to practise
no form of agriculture ; but
those who have reached
the earliest stage of it are described as cultivating
the species of Chinese millet called " sekoi " (or " ekor
kuching ") already mentioned/ Mr. L. Wray saw a
field of this millet grown at an altitude of 2400 ft. (730
m.) in Perak, and remarks that this form of grain is
grown largely by the Sakai, both in the hills of N. Perak
and of the Plus district, but that no rice was grown
there, and that their staple food appeared to be tapioca."
Mr. Wray adds that they also grew sweet potatoes,
sugar-cane, pumpkins, and tobacco, but no fruit, except
in the settlements near Malay villages.^
Elsewhere the Perak Sakai are described as
planting not only the crops already named, but maize
and yams, etc., etc'
According to Col. Low and De Morgan, the Sakai
make no sort of use of ploughing or harrowing
implements, but content themselves with making holes
in the ground with a pointed stick, in the open spaces
between the roots and tree-stumps,'' to contain the rice-
seed which is dropped into them.
De la Croix, in describing the Sakai village of
Kampong Chabang, on the upper waters of S. Kerbu
(a tributary of the Plus river in Upper Perak), gives
a graphic description of one of these aboriginal
clearings, stating that the jungle had been cleared
tor an area of about five acres {deux /leciares), and
• De la Croix, p. 340. Sed v. p.
^ /^jV/.
340, ante.
- Wray in /. K. A. S., S. B., No.
*
J. 1. A. vol.
Hale, p. 294.
iv. p. 429 ; .ind cp
21, p. 163. For illustrations of clearings,
cp. l.'Hommf, ii. 642. 643.
^ Low,/. /. ^. vol. iv. pp. 429, 430;
cp. De Morgan, vii. 423; /,"//. ii. 611.