Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

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530 DEALINGS WITH OTHER RACES part ii
in some parts between the Malays and aborigines.'
Maclay remarks that if the " tamer " Sakai are somewhat
dependent upon the Malays, the "wilder" ones
remain decidedly hostile to them, and never lose an
opportunity of taking revenge on these foes of theirs,
who by continually laying out new plantations diminish
the territory of the original inhabitants, get the pro-
duce of the jungle from them for a mere trifle, and
also, whenever they can possibly do so, capture their
children in order to keep them or sell them as slaves.
This man-hunting, which is now very rarely practised
by the Malays, was formerly practised on a larger
scale, and in many districts where numerous tribes
of the original inhabitants used formerly to dwell,
no traces of them are now to be found. The
Malays, however, in spite of their superiority in
all respects to these denizens of the jungle, are
nevertheless very much afraid of them, and do not
venture either alone or in too small parties into those
parts of the forest which the wilder aborigines are
known to frequent.
L, Wray has remarked that Sakai tracks, whereever
possible, invariably follow the bed of some
stream, and there is thus nothing to guide anybody
in attempting to follow them. This, he was informed,
was intentional, and in times past was a necessary
measure to prevent their being followed and hunted
out of their mountain homes by the Malays.^
' Maclay in writing of the Pangan, jurisdiction of the F. M. S. For an
whom he calls Saltai. J.R.A.S., S.B., instance in which six Malays were
No. 2, pp. 212, 213. It is, how- severely punished, see Maxwell in
ever, bare justice to the Government of y. R. A. S., S. B., No. 4, p. 46.
the British Protectorate to say that ^ Miklucho Maclay in _/. R. A, S.,
the raiding of the aborigines by Malays .S", B., No. 2, p. 213.
has been sternly repressed, whenever ^ _/. R. A. S., S. B., No. 21, pp.
the opportunity has offered, within the 163, 164.
f