Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

SAKAI OF SELANGOR
The "tamer" Sakai, on the other hand, even
when exploited by the Malays, frequently stand on
somewhat better terms with them. It is in this lighter
vein that a French traveller in Perak (M. Brau de
Saint-Pol Lias) ^ writes as follows :
" I approach an old man with a round, goodnatured
face, white hair, and grey moustache and
beard, and ask him his age.
" He smiles, hesitates a moment, and replies :
" ' '
Sa-ribu !
(' a thousand ').
" The Malays annoyingly break out into a great
—
shout of laughter, whereupon I ask them :
" ' Why
do you laugh like fools ? Perhaps he
means a thousand months. Which of yotc can tell me
'
how many years that makes ?
" They hold their peace.
" I return to my Sakai. I am determined to clear
up the point at once, and to find out if the Sakai,
as I have been told, can really only count up to
three.
" ' Sa-ribu !
the good-natured old man ;
That
is perhaps too much,' I say to
see about how much.it is approximately.'
" * Sa-ratus '
" ' That
sixty } '
" ' Yes,
'
it is too much. Let us
(' a hundred '), he replies quickly.
is still too much. Perhaps you mean
sixty.'
" I have not settled the point yet." '
Selang-or Sakai. — The nomadic instinct of the
Sakai dies hard, even among the more settled tribes,
and Letessier records the fact that many Sakai
who had been enslaved and converted by the Malays
have taken the advantage of the establishment of the
' Brau de Saint-Pol Lias, pp. 251-253.