Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/191

 into store. Clearly the spirits stand in need of com- fort and reparation for the injury which has been wrought, and for the loss which. they have sustained. An apologetic mood is felt by the tribe to be appro- priate upon their part, and Sakai custom-well-nigh as ancient as the hills in which these people live- provides for such emergencies.

The house of the headman or of the local wizard- and the Sakai, as the Malays will tell you, are deeply versed in magic arts is filled to the roof with the sodden green growths of the jungle. The Sâkai, having trespassed upon the domain of the spirits, now invite the demons of the woods and of the grain to share with them the dwellings of men. Then, when night has fallen, the whole tribe of Sakai- men, women, and little children-casting aside their bark loin-clouts, creep into the house, stark naked and entirely unarmed. Grovelling together in the darkness, anid the leaves and branches with which the place is crammed, they raise their voices in a weird chant, which peals skyward till the dawn has come again.

No man can say how ancient are these annual orgies, nor trace with certainty the beginnings in which they originated. Perhaps they date back to a period when huts, and garments even of bark, were newly acquired things, and when the Sâkai suffered both ungladly, after the manner of all wild jungle creatures. It may be that, in those days, they cast aside their bark loin-cloths to revel once more in pristine nakedness, amid the green boughs of the