Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. VIII SAKAI OF PERAK 385
of a full-grown Artocarpus, so as to mark out a
broad band or strip of bark, the size of which varied
according to the object for which it was required, an
average size being from three to four metres by
from sixty to eighty centimetres.'
When the required strip had been thus marked
out, the bark itself was hammered in situ until it was
loosened and detached from the trunk. This strip
was then taken and laid upon a tree-stump or anything
else that might serve, and was then pounded
with a wooden mallet, and (occasionally) decorated
with designs in yellow paint (as among the Semang).
The Sakai of Batang Padang (Mr. L. Wray informs
me) employ mallets made of a piece of hard heavy
wood about 13 in. (33 cm.) long, by \\ in. (^^yl mm-)
in diameter. The side of the mallet with which
the bark is beaten is grooved transversely, the grooves
extending about half-way round the stick.
Mr. Wray writes me that the Sakai women also
wear belts composed of a coil of twine made from the
black fibre of the sugar palm (" gomuto' "). These
belts are about i^ in. (31.5 mm.) thick, and of
such a diameter that they can just be passed round
the hips of the wearer. They are often decorated
with flowers and sweet-smelling leaves, and with them
are often worn two bunches either of bark-fibre or of
finely-cut " pandanus "-leaves. These bunches, which
are about 6 in. (15 cm.) long, are placed one on either
hip, the upper (tied) end of each being inserted into
(and between) the strands of the belt. Both these
belts and hip-bunches are quite characteristic of the
Sakai.
* De Morgan, vii. 413, of the Sakai of Changkat Chabang in Pcrak.
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