Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/528

SAKAI. 474: SAKTAS. SAKAI, sii'ki. One ol the aboriginal peoples of I lie -Malay Peninsula, regarileil liy prac- tieall.v all aiitliorities as true •Xegrito' in type. The purest representatives ol" the stock are found in the interior of the peninsula, particularly in Roulheastern Perak and nortli western Pahang. Physically the Sakai are undersized, with doli- chocephalic skulls, dark brown skins, frizzly or woolly hair, and rather thick lips. They are still nomads, except at a few points on the west coast, where regular relations with the Malays have led to small plantations of rice and sugar cane. Klsewhere they are found in small family groups (mostly two or three families), with patriar- chate rule, but copartnership of man and wife on a monogamie basis. Their houses are very primi- tive in character, and in the regions where tigers abound platforms are built in the trees. Tbe language may be described as monosyllabic with a strong agglutinative tendency, and is divided into several dialects, of which two only are known to any extent. It contains a number of Malay loan-words. Consult: Stevens, Materi- alirn :ur Kciuilnis der irildcn t^tnnime oiif (ler Halbiiiscl Malukka (Berlin. 18n2) : Schmidt, Die tiprachrn der iSalcei und Keitifiiig atif Malacca und ihr Verhiiltni/i zu den Moii-Khmcr ^prachen (The Hague. 1901). SAKAI, sli'kr'. An important manufacturing city in the Prefecture of Osaka. .Japan, situated on Csaka Bay. six miles southwest of Osaka (Map: .Japan, D 6). Its chief manufactures in- clude cotton goods, cotton rugs, sake, bricks, cut- lerv. and cosmetic powders. Population, in 1898, 50.203. SAKALAVA, sli'ka-lii'va. A negroid people living in a number of trilics in the western part of Madagascar. Physically they closely resemble the Bantu negroes of Africa, but exhiljit many results of crossing with the Malay inhabitants of the rest of the island. Their culture also is very similar to that of their African neighbors. The weight of authority is in favor of an African origin of the Sakalava. though some competent investigators regard them as Melanesiau immi- grants. See JI.DA(iASCAR. SAKANDERABAD, sa-kan'der-a-bad'. A toMi 'if HvihTal)ad, India. See Secusderabad. SAKATA, s;-i-kii'ta. A seaport in the Prefec- ture of Yamagata. .Japan, situated on the western coast of Hondo, about 100 miles south of Akita (Map: .Japan. F 4). It has an extensive trade in rice. Population, in 1898, 21,937. SAKE, sa'kti. The rice beer of the Japanese. It ctrntains only a small percentage of alcohol, but in some of its forms is very intoxicating through the presence of fusel oil. Thesie are many varieties, differing in strength, color, and flavor. The best comes from the Province of Setsu. Sake is used freely as a beverage, and in the ceremonies connected with Confucianism and Shinto, At elaborate feasts it is customary for the host to drink a cup of sake with each of his giiests, SAKHALIN, sii'ka-lyen'. See Saqhauen, SAKI (.South American name) , A monkey of the South American genus Pithecia, allied to" the howlers, but characterized by the inclination for- ward of the lower incisor teeth, much as in lemurs. They have a thumb and the tail is not prehensile. Associated with them in these charac- teristics are the Uakari monkeys, which, how- ever, differ greatly in their ^•ery short tails and otherwise. Most of them have long, soft hair, which has a wig-like appearance on the head, forms a long, divided beard beneath the chin, and makes the long tail bushy. Five or six species are known, all small, retiring, sober in their be- havior, and confined to the valleys of the Amazon and Orinoco. One is the Brazilian "couxio' (I'itticcia tSaliiiiis) , which is everywhere blackish brown; another is the 'cou.xia,' or red-backed saki {I'itlircia chiropoles) , marked by a large dorsal patcli of reddish brown. The best known one. perhaps, is the blackish, 'hairy,' or Humbohlt's saki, or 'parauae.'U,' It is speckled gray, and has a heavy hood of hair overhanging the face. Consult Bates, A Naturalist on the Ai)iazon (London, 2d ed,. 1892), See Monkey; and Plate of American Monkeys. SAKKABA, sak-ka'ra. A village of Egypt, noted for its ancient mausolea and pyramids. See Saqqara. SAKTAS, shak'taz (Skt. »akta, worshiper of the iliviiie energy, especially the female principle of divinity, from sakii. power). In Hindu re- ligion, the worshipers of any of the female rep- resentations of the divine power. In its special and usual sense, the word is applied to the wor- shiper of the female energy or wife of Siva (q.v.) alone; and the Saktas properly so called are, therefore, the votaries of Durga, or Devi, or Uma. Originally, however, the mother-goddess worshiped by the Saktas has nothing to do with Siva or any other god. She was herself, as Durga, Parvati, Kali, or simply as Great Mother, the matriarchal deity of the Dravidians; but subsequently by the Aryans she was regarded merely as the female principle of an androgynous god. As such, the goddess Sakta, "female power,' became synonymous with the female principle in life, and the worship of this principle, though sometimes loftily conceived, led to the grossest licentiousness. The works from which the tenets and rites of this religion are derived are known by the collective term of Tantras (q.v,), but since in some of these works the ritual enjoined did not comprehend all the impure practices recommended in others, the sect became divided into two leading l)ranclies, the Dakfiin-uoarins and the VOnn'inlrins, the followers of the right-hand and the left-hand ritual respectivel.y. The Daksinacarins are the only respectable Saktas, They profess, indeed, to possess a ritual as pure as that of the Vedas, Their priests, however, are not required to know any Veda, and they differ in their practice from the Vedic cult in the method of performing sacrifices. The Vamacarins, on the other hand, adopt a ritual of the grossest impurities. They profess the de- sire to become one with the deity by means of mystic rites; but in reality these rites are simply orgies of lust, except where the object of the worshiper is to obtain siddhi, magical power, in which case recourse is had to mystic formulas at midnight in a cemetery. This WOT- ship is not a degeneration, as has sometimes been held. It is a survival of the same primitive molher-worship that once obtained among all the Dravidians as among the Semites. Some Saktas are not Saivas (q.v.), but the majority belong to this class. See Siva and Saivas, with the literature cited under the latter title.