My Friends the Savages

and his laws?-?A contented mind is a continual feast?-?A night among the tigers?-?On the Berumbum?-?I

lt a strong desire to explore the whole country inhabited by the Sakai tribes to better estimate its riches a

when, in 1901, I happened to be at Tapah I was offered t

conscious before. I therefore accepted it with great pleasure, the more so as I felt

ous quarrel that had taken place amongst the Sakais livi

sidering the good nature of the people, that i

e some salt out of a bamboo tube and eat it, the two guests asked to be allowed to taste it in their turn. In whatever hut of the jungle savages, this desire would have been anticipate

infringement of the Sakai custom of sharing like brothers all they possessed. They in

to their traps and brought back with them four big

some time-ate two of them, thereby causing herself such a

of fruit

9

iving them the salt. They quickly decided that the crime should be punished by death and started off in pursuit of the supposed culprits. As soon as the

on and bade the pengulu (Malay chief) to make enquiries in orde

of proceeding was not to my opinion, as I explained in my report. The fact was quite an exceptional one and was the consequence of a deplorable superstition. By imprisoning someone we should not have cured t

I was able to go alone and find out the rights of the case after w

the territory entrusted to my care and I really do not remember any other of my travels so full

ch in the knowledge I had gained of the jungle, and the po

erils that can befall anybody, for it

e keenest of European eyes, the native knows how to draw precise indications of the direction to be followed. Wherever he goes, he never forgets to leave some trace of his passage in order

h cluster everywhere; the huge bushes and flowering thickets; the dips and hollows in the ground, and the little ponds over which the green of reed and rush triumphs equally with bright floral colours. The European embraces all this in a sole glance, in it

twilight breathed that solemn calm which especially belongs to the forest when its more innocent inhabitants are beg

I could not understand this at all until suddenly (with what dismay I will leave my reader to imagi

; I advanced a little this way and that, then retraced my steps,

h; I was lost in the depth of the for

d I should be exposed to the fatal caresses of some wild beast, on the other hand if I climbed up a tree (no very easy matter as

to hollo desperately, calling frantically for help with such a piercing vo

ce answered my wild cries from a distance. Once more I bawled with all my might and then listened. Yes, there was no doubt; so

a solitary hut that I found to be i

water, and I, in return, handed round some tobacco, then, tranquil as regarded the night, with a sigh of relief I li

he Sakais' dislike for work

ithout the least he

like slaves? Does not the earth give us, spontaneously, more t

logical, but I sm

ything without working it. When you want rice or tob

an quickl

ying up our ponds we have no fish to eat; by cultivating our land we are being continually driven farther towards the mountains, in search of that food which satisfied our fathers, but th

of anim

9

n the rough, broken phrases of his poor language solved with the greatest simplicity questions of civil

s; if nobody cultivated some strips of your forest,

head my humble hos

duce, for our use, roots, bulbs, truffles, mushrooms, edible leaves and exquisite fruit? Do not its trees provide

o the effects of that same tobacco, whose necessity he had just denied, but which he was smoking with evident

serve their conquerors they brought little or no profit to their masters because if they found a chance of escaping back to their kindred they did so, and if not, in a short time they died of broken hearts. As for our childr

ous villages were scattered over the forest. But our tranquillity and well-being excited the envy of other tribes who wanted to subject us to them and to make us work like slaves, so they came against us armed,

again and

us than life itself, and for this we are ready to fight to the very last e

with all the ferocity of wild beasts and even if nobody was saved from the massacre to report the terrible news in other encampments, alarm would have been given by the sound of fire-arms and cries. In consequence the other Sakais would immediately destroy all signs of their habitation, and penetrate farther into the forest which, for them, has no secret concealed. Towards nigh

oisoned arrows, in the midst of the forest, during the night. Your men would

me something about their customs rega

lder (be he father or grandfather), our peace is guaranteed. There are no quarrels, there is no jealousy or bad-feeling, for all ar

in domestic economy could not be applied in the same way to the hale and strong members of the family as to the w

lk of men different to him in form or robustness. If however, the Evil Spirit makes one of our children be born deformed, or with a defect, he is treated with the care necessary to his state

dies loveless (and as the Sakais are not given to strong passions, and are chaste by nature, this is n

vil Spirit, I abruptly demanded wh

e, he is in the trees and the water. Sometimes he enters our huts and makes someone die; then we bury our dead very deep under the groun

carce of words and verbs, we prepared to follow the example of the other members of my host's family who had gone to sleep during our quiet chat. But before closing my eyes I repassed in mind t

-breed

1

in a daily struggle for what he could dispense with? And I asked myself if in that perfect inertness, in that immunity from all feelings of sensuality, hatred, ambition or rivalry must he not be a thousand times happier than we in civilized society who seek fortune a

s of life straight from her never-failing stores and thereby lowering himself to the state of the humblest of her creatures, or we who worry our

of the old Sakai. An enemy to progress of any kind he logically conformed himse

gress, why do we continually preach this proverb to our yo

to the former, and they make use of this maxim for their own ends and to take advantage of others, whereas this savage, reared in the maternal arms of Nature (that gives and takes, produces and causes witho

ing the will to philosophize so soon after such a terrible adventure. Well, I confes

led out loudly, as was my habit, to give the necessary orders; but nobody answered. Wondering what it meant I descended to the group of huts which I found empty and half destroyed. I supposed t

sun would soon be setting and no good could be expected of a se

ation of king Edwar

1

rapidly darkening with the frenzied dance of heavy black clouds and it was not long before they opene

ere quickly formed, which cancelled all traces and made me lose my

e, in the meantime, night had fallen and neither the lightning nor m

on the other occasion and which has so direful an effect u

t without any notion hard

my face and hands horribly. I scrambled out, however, almost directly, animated by a fiery instinct of self preservation, and

east gallop over my body. What was i

y seemed to diminish every minute and the mad, desperate thought flashed across my min

the monkeys were having upon the thick boughs that sheltered them from the bad weather, and from

by the clamouring cries of thousands of wild beasts, rushing forth from their

I got up and staggered forward, not knowing w

n useless, for the ever-increasing din would have prevented others, and me, from hearing anything else. I managed to prop myself up against a rock and with a

able fate which was fast overtaking me? I do not know; I o

r not willing, I

hrooms illuminated the darkness with

to get louder and nearer. It was like the advan

tly. I could have sworn that all the fiercest inhabitants of the forest had agreed to meet near me. Wa

d an unearthly yell made my poor body start o

perhaps 50, perhap

would be preferable for death to come upon me s

t with my left hand, whose nerves, muscles and nails

f cruel, breath

nug in a warm bed, the mid-night stillness has been broken by two amorous cats on the roof or in the court that are putting their vocal powers and their hearer's patience to the

would they notice the dainty mea

was savagely bellowing. Was he t

for hours, but I no longer had the perception of time or peril. Only the appalling fear

away or when the enormous multitud

wo heralds of the morn, the cep pl?t and the cep riò an

d with the cold which was all the more intense from the rain first

through, I scarcely knew how to get away from that spot where I had endured so

ated its hospitable region, hailed the new day with noisy acclamation, and their joy f

ose to a spring of hot water, where the kings, queens, princes a

that awful night and for some time afterwards I made my faithful little Sakai accompan

of tatooed B

1

to the sea which reflects my Liguria. Up there the nocturnal silence is not rent by the blood-thirsty cries of wild animals, and after having been lulled to sleep for so long by their distant clamour, and especially after the strong emotions I had quite recently experienced, that prof

l asleep I did not

h me, and began to shake it, but he shrank back with a frightened cry as a little s

that his sort is very much maligned and that if you leave them alone to do what th

ht of 5000 feet and occupy themselves in agriculture, for the cold during the night is someti

ersuasions w

orning when in the distance an old man who, as far as I could underst

been a village but its now miserable aspect made it a strange

told me with grief in his tones that the village had been devastated by armed enemies. "Many of my brethren were killed and many others were taken away as sla

e whose people for the most lead a roving

vilized; men who, shunned by their honest and laborious countrymen, make the free forest a field for their vile passions, and now that they can no longer give vent to their evil desires in depredation and b

our large cities; people born with savage instincts; men who would rather pass their

here there is a mixture of race, the result of those forced unions which were the desperation of Sakai women when taken prisoners. In the ch

had a pro

sometimes on the plain and sometimes on the mountain and I frequen

were several real Sakais who had come from their jungle home to exchange products-and on my r

he caught me by the arm and pointed to a stick stuck into the ground just in front, from which some leaves were dangling.

len over it, if my companion had not prevented me. He simply said

d been put there, on purpose for me, by the villanous bastard in whose hut I had halt

obstacle to their bad living and knowing that I had the intention of passing his way again in a few days he had placed the trap there in order to kill me. He was so contented

moment the wretch would most likely

ough-bred and a half-bred Sakai; the former will risk life itself

me on another occasion when I wa

interested in the proceedings and it seemed to me a right thing that a representation of my friends the savages, who were under my administration, should

abdomen by a poisoned arrow, shot by an unknown hand. Aware of the terrible power of the forest venoms I gave myself up for lost and so without doubt I should have be

rts would have passed right through you, and besides

eddish-black colour that the poison used was a mixtur

red an antidote by mixing a pinch of lime and powdered charcoal

strange lotion, making it penetrate well

o better remedy to my knowledge, althoug

nd (which had all the requisites for a fatal one) healed.

ples of Escul

he victim of one of those ill-disposed individuals who c

and affection from the humble and good, is not

uality of Superintendent of the Sakais) to take part in the festivi

nd my desire was so well realized that when the time came I gathered around me about 500 men, women

turn gladly did their utmost to satisfy the curiosity they excited and were highly pleased at showing the

ir darts, and in successfully climbing the greasy pole, and the w

e overwhelmed with presents and attentions by the

he Authority and came back with necklaces and strings of

od impression my simple friends made by

tno

oest". This is a quotation from the It