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. These notes, the fruit of much sacrifice, I dedicate to the memory of my dear ones. The fond embrace of parents and a sister, whic

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 mainl

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. The kind reader who peruses these poor pages of notes and memories, accustomed to hear speak of expeditions organised for the purpose of penetrating into inhospitable lands or into regions encompassed by all the terror

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. Not having found even a trace of human habitation either on the second day of our march we were once more compelled to prepare a shelter for the night as best we could. We made two little alcoves of boughs and leaves, and having satisfied the cravings of appe

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. My strength and health, which had suffered in consequence of those few days' strain of muscle and nerve, soon returned to their normal state in that peaceful retreat upon the grassy banks of the stream that is an affluent of the Bidor. My friendship with the Sak

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! My gold mania was transient. My spirit was very soon liberated from its thrall and I turned with alacrity to the study of a more practical and satisfactory enterprise. In that brief

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. To speak of the forest without having seen it, and after having seen it, to describe its marvellous beauties, are equally impossible tasks. When Art shall have re-produced fa

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. The young man who incautiously ventures into the mysterious parts of Drury Lane—where vice and crime have a classical reputation—or strolls through the old Latin Quarter of Paris (where some of the streets are anything but safe to pass through), or who finds himself, for whatsoever reason you will, in one of th

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. Having established a regular trade in forest products and attempted something in the way of plantations, I felt a strong desire to explore the whole country inhabited by the Sakai tribes to be

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. Paolo Mantegazza, the scientific poet writes: "Man is eternally tormenting himself with unanswered questions: Where did our species first come from? When did t

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. Woman, who has been compared to nearly every sort of animal that flies, creeps, swims or runs by poets and others of chivalrous sentiments, amongst the Sakais is simply a woman. In speaking of her those good sons of the East neither calumniate the dove nor the gazelle, an

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. A real village, such as we understand it to be, does not exist among the Sakais, but I have been obliged to make use of the word for want of a better one to explain the meaning. Each hut is some hundreds of yards distant from the other so that altogether a village covers a

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. Intellectual development amongst the Sakais of the hills is very limited and as a consequence requires little or no study but much more is to be met with amongst those of the plain for two reasons which I have already explained: one their traffic and consequent i

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. Primitive, like their language and their agriculture, are also Art and Industry among the Sakais. They make blowpipes, arrows and quivers from bamboo, strings from twisted vegetable fibres, ear-rings and ornamental combs for the women. Now, under my direction, they have begun to plait mats with dried gra

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​—​The scientific vigil​—​Venerable imposture!​—​TENAC and CINTOK [16] ​—​Therapeutic torture​—​Contagion ​—​A Sakai's death​—​The deserted village​—​Mourning​—​Births​—​Fire​—​Intellectual darkness​—​The Sakais and Islamism. The good notary Chirichillo, born in the fervid fancy of Ippo

Sakai arms​—​Shooting​—​Serpent catchers​—​The Sakai and his poisons​—​TOALANG, RENGAS AND SAGOL​—​SLÀ DOL, SLÀ PLEK and SLÀ CLOB​—​AKAR TOKA​—​Ipok [19] ​—​An antidote​—​The LEGOP​—​The Nai Bretaks​—​The preparation of LEGOP​—​Curious and superfluous ingredients​—​The effects of LEGOP​—​Strange contradictions​—​Experiments​—​Poisons and antidotes​—​The settler and science. The Sakai possesses only one weapon: the « blaù » (pr. blahoo) called « sumpitam » by the Malays. This reveals the peaceful

Past and future geography​—​Mountains and plateaus​—​An attempt at a census​—​Temperature​—​Maladies and remedies​—​ALÀ a quack. Thirty years ago, even in our best geographies, very little mention was made of the Malay Peninsula. Something was said about its coasts and a scanty product of tin, antimony and coal but there was not a single word about the wide stretch of land far from the shores, partly unexplored and partly inhabited by savages, beyond stating that a chain of mountains ran the who