Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. X SAKAI OF SELANGOR 50$
the deceased to take his place in the succession. In
default of heirs belonging to any of the three branches
referred to, the house and clearing are abandoned as
if accursed.
If the deceased has died of an epidemic sickness,
everything is abandoned by his heirs, who fear that
the very soil or goods of the deceased may contain
the germs of the disease.
Property rights are collective, not individual.
This flows from the custom by which the Penghulu
designates, in every case, the limits of the ground
that each member of the tribe may occupy. Even
abandoned land may not be taken up again without
the consent of the tribal chief.
The result is that all the members of the tribe are
guaranteed against dispossession.
Chiefs, Laws, Succession.
Selangor Sakai.—There is no trustworthy authority
for the title of " Batin " as obtaining among the
Sakai of Perak. Whether we may conclude that this
title is not used at all in Perak is doubtful, but in any
case the completest form of the Sakai constitution
(and that one of Malayan origin)' is to be found in the
interior of Selangor, where the Batin is the chief of a
group of Sakai villages, which as a rule are fairly near
each other. Under the Batin are the Mentri or Jinang,
Jukrah (or Jekra), Penghulu Balai, and Penglima.
The foregoing is probably the full list of these
functionaries, but it very seldom happens that any
' Letessier, p. 99. Both forms Jekra does not seem altogether certain, and the
and Jiikra(or Jukrah)areused. The form form Jukrah may merely be an instance
Jukrah is explained as an abbreviation of po])ular etymology. All these titles
of Juru-krah,()r"(W7'cVotticer"("super- are Malayan, and show the strong Jakun
visor of the co)-7k'e") ; hut this derivation influence among the Sakai of Selangor.