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MY FRIENDS
THE SAVAGES
BY
Captain G. B. CERRUTI
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN
BY I. STONE SANPIETRO
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS OF A
PERAK SETTLER (MALAY PENINSULA).
RICHLY ILLUSTRATED WITH
ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY
THE AUTHOR.
COMO (Italy)
TIPOGRAFIA COOPERATIVA COMENSE
1908
_Every copy of this work not bearing the
author's signature will be retained by him
as an infringement of his rights._
[Signature of author]
These notes, the fruit of much
sacrifice, I dedicate to the memory
of my dear ones.
The fond embrace of parents and
a sister, which for me was a sweet
augury at my departure, greeted me
no more at my return!
_Varazze, June 1906._
[Transcriber's Note: This table of contents was originally at the end
of the book but has been moved here for the convenience of users.]
CONTENTS
Chapter I: Malacca and its contrasts--Devourers of
the soul and devourers of the body--The realization
of a poet's dream--Temptations--A call from the
forest--Auri sacra fames--Baggage--Farewell to
civilization _Page_ 5
Chapter II: My escort--By steamer to Telok Anson--The
other bank of the Perak--Towards the forest--First
news--Blood-letting in the swamp--Robbed and
forsaken--Revenge in due time--The Malay's
instigation--My little Sam Sam's fidelity--
Philosophical reflections under a heavy weight " 11
Chapter III: A fearful nocturnal concert--Fire!
Fire!--A clearing in the forest--A general
flight--Masters of the camp!--Mortal
weariness--A morning greeting without any
compliments--A first meeting--In the
village--_Alà_ against the Orang-putei " 22
Chapter IV: New friends--Gold--An English official--
The purchase of my future treasure--Administrative
simplicity--England teaches!--The "sla pui"--Bitter
disappointment--The Sam-Sam--The poison of the
Savage and the venom of the Civilized " 31
Chapter V: Great Mother Earth--A dangerous meeting--
A living statue--Here or there?--An unrelished
supper--A dreaded immigration--A glance into
the past--A rape which was not a rape--A noble
task--Towards the mountain--Tiger-shooting--The
Sakais in town--Alloyed sweets--Musical tastes--
Hurrah for the free forest! " 42
Chapter VI: The great Sorceress--The forest seen from
above--A struggle for life--The crimes of plants--
Everlasting twilight--Births and deaths--Concerts
by forest vocalists--The "durian"--The "ple-lok"--
Vastnesses unexplored by science--Treasures
intact--Para Rubber--The Samaritans of the
jungle--The forest and its history " 59
Chapter VII: The snares of civilized life--Faust's
invocation--The dangers of the forest--Serpents--
A perilous adventure--Carnivorous and herbivorous
animals--The "sladan"--The man of the wood " 75
Chapter VIII: An official appointment--A tour
of inspection--Lost in the forest--I find a
philosopher--Lycurgus and his laws--A contented
mind is a continual feast--A night among the
tigers--On the Berumbum--I sleep with a serpent--
The last of many--Safe from trap and arrow--The
coronation of King Edward VII " 85
Chapter IX: The origin of the Sakais--Hypothesis
and legend--Physical character--Thick tresses,
gay flowers and troublesome guests--Hereditary
antipathy--The five senses reduced to two--
Food and drink--Tranquil life--Intolerance of
authority--Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law--
Logical laziness--A Sakai journalist--The story
of a mattress " 107
Chapter X: The Sakai woman--Conjugal fidelity--A life
of labour--Betrothals and nuptials--Love among
the Sakais--Divorcement--No kissing--Chastity--
Bigamy--Maternity and its excesses--Aged before the
time--Fashion and coquetry " 125
Chapter XI: A Sakai village--The "elder"--The family--
Degrees of relationship--Humorists disoccupied--On
the march--Tender hearts--Kindling the fire--A
hecatomb of giants--The hut--Household goods and
utensils--Work and repose " 141
Chapter XII: Intellectual development--Sakais of the
plain and Sakais of the hills--Laziness and
intelligence--Falsehood and the Evil Spirit--
The Sakai language--When the "Orang Putei" gets
angry--Counting time--Novel calendars--Moral gifts " 152
Chapter XIII: First attempts at industry--The story of
a hat--Multiplicity--Primitive arts--Sakai music--
Songs--Instruments--Dances--Ball dresses--Serpentine
gracefulness--An unpublished Sakai song " 172
Chapter XIV: The beliefs and superstitions of the
Sakais--Metempsychosis--The Evil Spirit--
Superstition among savages and ignorance among
civilized people--The two sources of life--The
wind--The Alà priest and physician--A scientific
vigil--Venerable imposture!-_Tenac_ and _Cintok_--
Therapeutic torture--Contagion--A Sakai's
death--The deserted village--Mourning--Births--
Fire--Intellectual darkness--The Sakais and
Islamism " 183
Chapter XV: Sakai arms--Shooting--Serpent
catchers--The Sakai and his poisons--_Toalang_,
_rengas_ and _sagol_--_Slà dol_, _slà plek_
and _slà clob_--_Akar toka_--Ipok--An antidote--
The _labar_, _lampat_, _masè_ and _loo_--The
_legop_--The Mai Bretaks--The preparation of
_legop_--Curious and superfluous ingredients--The
effects of _legop_--Strange contradictions--
Experiments--Poisons and antidotes--The settler
and science " 202
Chapter XVI: Past and future geography--Mountains
and plateaus--An attempt at a census--Temperature--
Maladies and remedies--_Alà_ a quack. " 221
AMONG THE SAKAIS
CHAPTER I.
Malacca and its contrasts--Devourers of the soul and devourers of
the body--The realization of a poet's dream--Temptations--A call
from the forest--Auri sacra fames--Baggage--Farewell to
civilization.
From the Bay of Bengal and the Gulf of Siam the Malay Peninsula, once
known as the Golden Chersonese, jets out into the Indian Ocean like an
arm stretched forth to unite once more within its embrace the
innumerable isles that belt its coasts and that have probably been
severed from the mainland by the combined force of Time and Sea.
In these surrounding islands, some as large as continents, others as
narrow as reefs, over which civilization passes in squalls of cupidity,
are concealed the strangest contrasts, for whilst around the shore human
wolves disguised as civilized men are devouring souls, or (with due
observance of the law) are usurping and stealing their neighbour's
property and products, (the cleverest and most respected being he who
best dissembles his rapacity or who knows how best to substitute
unscrupulous shrewdness for industrial activity) not far off towards
the centre of these scattered lands other men, in primitive ignorance of
the law, are devouring their neighbours' flesh and skin or stealing
their live bodies to serve as slaves.
But such curious contrasts are not after all so very striking when one
considers that to devour souls and to devour flesh are both natural
instincts of Man!
Around the coast of the Peninsula are many flourishing towns where every
modern and up-to-date accommodation is to be found. These seaside
resorts are thronged with a cosmopolitan population composed of
tourists, business men, nabobs and adventurers. There life rolls on in
the refined corruption of fashionable society amidst sports and
amusements, scandals and intrigues, every race and every tongue
contributing its share of good and evil. A motley crowd swarms their
streets, presenting to the eye of an onlooker the picturesque spectacle
that the contrast of costumes always produces. They are people of
different colours, dress and education, attracted thither by the
loadstone of wealth. The fortunate, the clever, the unscrupulous have
already gained the victory in Life's struggles and now ride about in
motor-cars of the newest types; the others look at them, most likely
envy them, and work all the harder to get rich themselves. Will they
succeed? The way, here is a short one but can only be successfully
trodden by those who possess sound energy and blind confidence in their
own brains and in their own muscles. It must not be thought, however,
that the motor-car is a prerogative, in these parts, of opulent
Europeans and Chinese for it is also a powerful auxiliary for those who
are striving to make their fortunes through agricultural and mining
speculations in the wildest regions of the Peninsula.
But whilst near the sea the inhabitants and travellers can enjoy all the
luxuries and conveniences of the 20th century, in the interior of the
Peninsula, leading a nomadic life in the thick of the jungle, which
covers the range of mountains from north to south, a primitive people
still exists. All unconscious of the violent passions and turbulent
emotions that disturb the tranquillity of their fellow-creatures
(civilized in form if not in fact) at some miles distant from them, they
live quietly and peaceably in their forest homes preserving intact their
original simplicity and ingenuousness.
The hot breath of our fagging life, that generates every sort of nerve
complaint, has not yet reached their mountain haunts. On those wild
heights the nerves rest; the affections are not tormented; love is pure
and, for this, lasting; ambition neither perverts the mind, nor consumes
the conscience; there are no honours or favours to arouse envy; no
artificial boundaries to liberty or difficult problems about Capital and
Labour; there are no rich and no poor, for in that blessed spot money is
an unknown article and what is more--strange triumph of the Savage over
the Civilized--every man is a brother to the other!
Up there in the forest there are neither princes nor subjects;
Governments nor Police; no Tax-gatherers, public meetings or strikes so
that if Stecchetti[1] were still living he might have been sent among
the Sakais to find the ideal place of which he was always seeking the
address.
* * * * *
The 15th of June 1891 I landed at Penang (the Prince of Wales's Island)
on my return from an exploring tour in the Isle of Nias. I was feeling
rather worn out with the fatigues lately undergone so resolved to rest
awhile on British territory.
I had brought with me a rich and interesting ethnographical collection I
found no difficulty in selling to the Perak Government that destined it
to the Museum at Taiping, a small town where is the British Residence.
During my well-earned repose I often heard speak of the Mai Darats, a
tribe of Aborigines dwelling in the interior of the Peninsula and who
were called by the name of Sakais by the Malays, a scornful appellation
which signifies _a people of slaves_, and this insulting term is
explained by the fact that formerly their neighbours carried on an
extensive slave-trade by making them victims and also took advantage of
their simplicity and good faith in many other ways, until the British
Protectorate was established and these poor wandering tribes were put
upon a par with more civilized races.
I began to gather information concerning these wild men of the bush and
learnt that they inhabited the unfrequented parts of the Perak and
Pahang States, that they were a nomadic race and that they passed most
of their time in the abstraction and preparation of vegetable and animal
poisons in which art they were exceptionally expert and that they were
equally skilful in shooting poisoned arrows. Some of my informants
wanted to make me believe that they were exceedingly ferocious by nature
and so superstitious that they would aim their deadly dart at whatever
stranger ventured to approach them, believing him to be the messenger of
some Evil Spirit and that afterwards they would make of him a dainty
meal to comfort their insatiable stomachs.
But knowing something of the previous relations between the Sakais and
the people surrounding them I was put on my guard against certain
exaggerated and prejudiced reports and felt strongly tempted to try and
dissipate the vague mystery--that I somehow guessed was based upon
self-interest--in which they wished to envelop the Mai Darats.
The more they told me about them the more I felt attracted towards the
Sakais, it seeming to me that a people so foreign to every light of
civilization, so bold as they were described to be, so free from every
regime or authority, must needs afford an interesting study to one who
sought to know them at close quarters. Perhaps, when once I had overcome
the, not always surmountable, difficulty of getting into their company,
I might find amongst them a tranquil life and settle down in their midst
as a planter or agriculturist for I was already convinced that I was
unfitted for commercial enterprises in which very often scruples of
conscience and uprightness are encumbrances.
My brief sojourn in civilized society made me long for the freedom and
peace which, may be, awaited me there; I longed to know intimately these
people who, I reasoned to myself, must be exempt from corruption as they
were so much hated by those who lived in its midst, and who were
surrounded by so much mystery.
There was, I must confess, another reason that helped to draw me towards
the Sakai camps. I know not how the germ took root, but in my brain the
conviction was always growing that in the heart of the Peninsula,
already proved to be rich in metals, a gold vein might be discovered.
The Virgilian _auri sacra fames_ took possession of me little by little,
solved every remaining doubt, conquered all my hesitations and removed
every obstacle.
This impetus united with the longing for new adventures, for profound
emotions, for a life far different in every respect to that I was then
passing in a sphere of elegant slavery, imposed by ridiculous
conventionalisms, decided me, and I packed up my baggage.
Just imagine: a strong piece of tarred canvas to be converted into a
camp-bed by means of four wooden pegs; a hat, four shirts and some
woollen undervests, a few pairs of trousers and socks, some very light
canvas shoes, and one or two khaki jackets as used by the soldiers in
Africa.
I did not forget though that it was very possible to catch some sort of
illness and as in those parts a malady followed by death may be
considered an involuntary suicide but never a homicide because.... there
are no doctors to cure you, I also provided myself with a small stock of
purgative lozenges, quinine, some antiseptic preparations and a
bistoury.
Thus having quickly arranged for my new journey and having supplied
myself with such elements as would be useful to me under the
circumstances, I added to them a large quantity of tobacco and coloured
beads--two things that exercise a great power over savages--and bidding
farewell to all the culinary delicacies adapted to weak digestions, and
turning my back upon all domestic comfort, I started forth towards the
Unknown.
[Illustration: A group of Mai Darats, called "Sakais".
_p._ 8.]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: An Italian poet who wrote many humorous
verses.--Translator's Note.]