Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/272

 childlike jungle-people were euphemistically said to repose upon his knees, as an infant lies in the lap of its mother. Malays have a fondness for picturesque notions of this kind, though their attitude toward the Sâkai has never been of a kind to justify this par- ticular simile. Although To' Pangku was a Muham- madan, he had, like most of the Malays of the Plus Valley, a strong strain of Sâkai in his blood, and his inherited and acquired woodcraft rendered him formidable in the jungles when he led the annual slave-raiding party in person. Moreover, he was greatly feared by Malays and Sâkai alike for the knowledge of magic and the occult powers which were attributed to him.

To' Stia, on the other hand, was a Sâkai born and bred, but he was the headman of one of the lamer tribes who, in order to save themselves and their wonenkind and children from suffering worse things than usual, were accustomed to throw in their lot with the Malays, and to aid them in their periodical slaving expeditions. His title, given to him by the Malays, means "the Faithful Grandfather." but his fidelity was to his masters and to his own tribal interests, not to the race to which he be- longed.

The presence of these two men with the party now upon the hunting-path boded ill for the cowering creatures in the camp, for the Sâkai's only chance of escape on such occasions lay in his sensitive hearing and in his superior knowledge of forest lore. But To' Pangku Muda and To' Stia, the Sakai knew full