COMPARATIVE STATE OF THE SUMATRANS IN CIVIL SOCIETY.
DIFFERENCE OF CHARACTER BETWEEN THE MALAYS AND OTHER INHABITANTS.
GOVERNMENT.
TITLES AND POWER OF THE CHIEFS AMONG THE REJANGS.
INFLUENCE OF THE EUROPEANS.
GOVERNMENT IN PASSUMMAH.
COMPARATIVE STATE OF SUMATRANS IN SOCIETY.
Considered as a people occupying a certain rank in the scale or civil
society, it is not easy to determine the proper situation of the
inhabitants of this island. Though far distant from that point to which
the polished states of Europe have aspired, they yet look down, with an
interval almost as great, on the savage tribes of Africa and America.
Perhaps if we distinguish mankind summarily into five classes; but of
which each would admit of numberless subdivisions; we might assign a
third place to the more civilized Sumatrans, and a fourth to the
remainder. In the first class I should of course include some of the
republics of ancient Greece, in the days of their splendour; the Romans,
for some time before and after the Augustan age; France, England, and
other refined nations of Europe, in the latter centuries; and perhaps
China. The second might comprehend the great Asiatic empires at the
period of their prosperity; Persia, the Mogul, the Turkish, with some
European kingdoms. In the third class, along with the Sumatrans and a few
other states of the eastern archipelago, I should rank the nations on the
northern coast of Africa, and the more polished Arabs. The fourth class,
with the less civilized Sumatrans, will take in the people of the new
discovered islands in the South Sea; perhaps the celebrated Mexican and
Peruvian empires; the Tartar hordes, and all those societies of people in
various parts of the globe, who, possessing personal property, and
acknowledging some species of established subordination, rise one step
above the Caribs, the New Hollanders, the Laplanders, and the Hottentots,
who exhibit a picture of mankind in its rudest and most humiliating
aspect.
FEW IMPROVEMENTS ADOPTED FROM EUROPEANS.
As mankind are by nature so prone to imitation it may seem surprising
that these people have not derived a greater share of improvement in
manners an arts from their long connection with Europeans, particularly
with the English, who have now been settled among them for a hundred
years. Though strongly attached to their own habits they are nevertheless
sensible of their inferiority, and readily admit the preference to which
our attainments in science, and especially in mechanics, entitle us. I
have heard a man exclaim, after contemplating the structure and uses of a
house-clock, "Is it not fitting that such as we should be slaves to
people who have the ingenuity to invent, and the skill to construct, so
wonderful a machine as this?" "The sun," he added, "is a machine of this
nature." "But who winds it up?" said his companion. "Who but Allah," he
replied. This admiration of our superior attainments is however not
universal; for, upon an occasion similar to the above, a Sumatran
observed, with a sneer, "How clever these people are in the art of
getting money."
Some probable causes of this backwardness may be suggested. We carry on
few or no species of manufacture at our settlements; everything is
imported ready wrought to its highest perfection; and the natives
therefore have no opportunity of examining the first process, or the
progress of the work. Abundantly supplied with every article of
convenience from Europe, and prejudiced in their favour because from
thence, we make but little use of the raw materials Sumatra affords. We
do not spin its cotton; we do not rear its silkworms; we do not smelt its
metals; we do not even hew its stone: neglecting these, it is in vain we
exhibit to the people, for their improvement in the arts, our rich
brocades, our timepieces, or display to them in drawings the elegance of
our architecture. Our manners likewise are little calculated to excite
their approval and imitation. Not to insist on the licentiousness that
has at times been imputed to our communities; the pleasures of the table;
emulation in wine; boisterous mirth; juvenile frolics, and puerile
amusements, which do not pass without serious, perhaps contemptuous,
animadversion--setting these aside it appears to me that even our best
models are but ill adapted for the imitation of a rude, incurious, and
unambitious people. Their senses, not their reason, should be acted on,
to rouse them from their lethargy; their imaginations must be warmed; a
spirit of enthusiasm must pervade and animate them before they will
exchange the pleasures of indolence for those of industry. The
philosophical influence that prevails and characterizes the present age
in the western world is unfavourable to the producing these effects. A
modern man of sense and manners despises, or endeavours to despise,
ceremony, parade, attendance, superfluous and splendid ornaments in his
dress or furniture: preferring ease and convenience to cumbrous pomp, the
person first in rank is no longer distinguished by his apparel, his
equipage, or his number of servants, from those inferior to him; and
though possessing real power is divested of almost every external mark of
it. Even our religious worship partakes of the same simplicity. It is far
from my intention to condemn or depreciate these manners, considered in a
general scale of estimation. Probably, in proportion as the prejudices of
sense are dissipated by the light of reason, we advance towards the
highest degree of perfection our natures are capable of; possibly
perfection may consist in a certain medium which we have already stepped
beyond; but certainly all this refinement is utterly incomprehensible to
an uncivilized mind which cannot discriminate the ideas of humility and
meanness. We appear to the Sumatrans to have degenerated from the more
splendid virtues of our predecessors. Even the richness of their laced
suits and the gravity of their perukes attracted a degree of admiration;
and I have heard the disuse of the large hoops worn by the ladies
pathetically lamented. The quick, and to them inexplicable, revolutions
of our fashions, are subject of much astonishment, and they naturally
conclude that those modes can have but little intrinsic merit which we
are so ready to change; or at least that our caprice renders us very
incompetent to be the guides of their improvement. Indeed in matters of
this kind it is not to be supposed that an imitation should take place,
owing to the total incongruity of manners in other respects, and the
dissimilarity of natural and local circumstances. But perhaps I am
superfluously investigating minute and partial causes of an effect which
one general one may be thought sufficient to produce. Under the frigid,
and more especially the torrid zone, the inhabitants will naturally
preserve an uninterrupted similarity and consistency of manners, from the
uniform influence of their climate. In the temperate zones, where this
influence is equivocal, the manners will be fluctuating, and dependent
rather on moral than physical causes.
DIFFERENCE IN CHARACTER BETWEEN THE MALAYS AND OTHER SUMATRANS.
The Malays and the other native Sumatrans differ more in the features of
their mind than in those of their person. Although we know not that this
island, in the revolutions of human grandeur, ever made a distinguished
figure in the history of the world (for the Achinese, though powerful in
the sixteenth century, were very low in point of civilization) yet the
Malay inhabitants have an appearance of degeneracy, and this renders
their character totally different from that which we conceive of a
savage, however justly their ferocious spirit of plunder on the eastern
coast may have drawn upon them that name. They seem rather to be sinking
into obscurity, though with opportunities of improvement, than emerging
from thence to a state of civil or political importance. They retain a
strong share of pride, but not of that laudable kind which restrains men
from the commission of mean and fraudulent actions. They possess much low
cunning and plausible duplicity, and know how to dissemble the strongest
passions and most inveterate antipathy beneath the utmost composure of
features till the opportunity of gratifying their resentment offers.
Veracity, gratitude, and integrity are not to be found in the list of
their virtues, and their minds are almost strangers to the sentiments of
honour and infamy. They are jealous and vindictive. Their courage is
desultory, the effect of a momentary enthusiasm which enables them to
perform deeds of incredible desperation; but they are strangers to that
steady magnanimity, that cool heroic resolution in battle, which
constitutes in our idea the perfection of this quality, and renders it a
virtue.* Yet it must be observed that, from an apathy almost paradoxical,
they suffer under sentence of death, in cases where no indignant passions
could operate to buoy up the mind to a contempt of punishment, with
astonishing composure and indifference; uttering little more on these
occasions than a proverbial saying, common among them, expressive of the
inevitability of fate--apa buli buat? To this stoicism, their belief in
predestination, and very imperfect ideas of a future, eternal existence,
doubtless contribute.
(*Footnote. In the history of the Portuguese wars in this part of the
East there appear some exceptions to this remark, and particularly in the
character of Laksamanna (his title of commander-in-chief being mistaken
for his proper name), who was truly a great man and most consummate
warrior.)
Some writer has remarked that a resemblance is usually found between the
disposition and qualities of the beasts proper to any country and those
of the indigenous inhabitants of the human species, where an intercourse
with foreigners has not destroyed the genuineness of their character. The
Malay may thus be compared to the buffalo and the tiger. In his domestic
state he is indolent, stubborn, and voluptuous as the former, and in his
adventurous life he is insidious, bloodthirsty, and rapacious as the
latter. Thus also the Arab is said to resemble his camel, and the placid
Hindu his cow.
CHARACTER OF NATIVE SUMATRANS.
The Sumatran of the interior country, though he partakes in some degree
of the Malayan vices, and this partly from the contagion of example,
possesses many exclusive virtues; but they are more properly of the
negative than the positive kind. He is mild, peaceable, and forbearing,
unless his anger be roused by violent provocation, when he is implacable
in his resentments. He is temperate and sober, being equally abstemious
in meat and drink. The diet of the natives is mostly vegetable; water is
their only beverage; and though they will kill a fowl or a goat for a
stranger, whom perhaps they never saw before, nor ever expect to see
again, they are rarely guilty of that extravagance for themselves; nor
even at their festivals (bimbang), where there is a plenty of meat, do
they eat much of anything but rice. Their hospitality is extreme, and
bounded by their ability alone. Their manners are simple; they are
generally, except among the chiefs, devoid of the Malay cunning and
chicane; yet endued with a quickness of apprehension, and on many
occasions discovering a considerable degree of penetration and sagacity.
In respect to women they are remarkably continent, without any share of
insensibility. They are modest; particularly guarded in their
expressions; courteous in their behaviour; grave in their deportment,
being seldom or never excited to laughter; and patient to a great degree.
On the other hand, they are litigious; indolent; addicted to gaming;
dishonest in their dealings with strangers, which they esteem no moral
defect; suspicious; regardless of truth; mean in their transactions;
servile; though cleanly in their persons, dirty in their apparel, which
they never wash. They are careless and improvident of the future, because
their wants are few, for though poor they are not necessitous; nature
supplying, with extraordinary facility, whatever she has made requisite
for their existence. Science and the arts have not, by extending their
views, contributed to enlarge the circle of their desires; and the
various refinements of luxury, which in polished societies become
necessaries of life, are totally unknown to them. The Makassar and Bugis
people, who come annually in their praws from Celebes to trade at
Sumatra, are looked up to by the inhabitants as their superiors in
manners. The Malays affect to copy their style of dress, and frequent
allusions to the feats and achievements of these people are made in their
songs. Their reputation for courage, which certainly surpasses that of
all other people in the eastern seas, acquires them this flattering
distinction. They also derive part of the respect paid them from the
richness of the cargoes they import, and the spirit with which they spend
the produce in gaming, cock-fighting, and opium-smoking.
GOVERNMENT.
Having endeavoured to trace the character of these people with as much
fidelity and accuracy as possible, I shall now proceed to give an account
of their government, laws, customs, and manners; and, in order to convey
to the reader the clearest ideas in my power, I shall develop the various
circumstances in such order and connection as shall appear best to answer
this intent, without confining myself, in every instance, to a rigid and
scrupulous arrangement under distinct heads.
REJANGS DIVIDED INTO TRIBES.
The Rejang people, whom, for reasons before assigned, I have fixed upon
for a standard of description, but which apply generally to the orang
ulu, or inhabitants of the inland country, are distinguished into tribes,
the descendants of different ancestors. Of these there are four
principal, who are said to trace their origin to four brothers, and to
have been united from time immemorial in a league offensive and
defensive; though it may be presumed that the permanency of this bond of
union is to be attributed rather to considerations of expediency
resulting from their situation than to consanguinity or any formal
compact.
THEIR GOVERNMENT.
The inhabitants live in villages, called dusun, each under the government
of a headman or magistrate, styled dupati, whose dependants are termed
his ana-buah, and in number seldom exceed one hundred. The dupatis
belonging to each river (for here, the villages being almost always
situated by the waterside, the names we are used to apply to countries or
districts are properly those of the rivers) meet in a judicial capacity
at the kwalo, where the European factory is established, and are then
distinguished by the name of proattin.
PANGERAN.
The pangeran (a Javanese title), or feudal chief of the country, presides
over the whole. It is not an easy matter to describe in what consists the
fealty of a dupati to his pangeran, or of his ana-buah to himself, so
very little in either case is practically observed. Almost without arts,
and with but little industry, the state of property is nearly equal among
all the inhabitants, and the chiefs scarcely differ but in title from the
bulk of the people.
HIS AUTHORITY.
Their authority is no more than nominal, being without that coercive
power necessary to make themselves feared and implicitly obeyed. This is
the natural result of poverty among nations habituated to peace; where
the two great political engines of interest and military force are
wanting. Their government is founded in opinion, and the submission of
the people is voluntary. The domestic rule of a private family beyond a
doubt suggested first the idea of government in society, and, this people
having made but small advances in civil policy, theirs continues to
retain a strong resemblance of its original. It is connected also with
the principle of the feudal system, into which it would probably settle
should it attain to a greater degree of refinement. All the other
governments throughout the island are likewise a mixture of the
patriarchal and feudal; and it may be observed that, where a spirit of
conquest has reduced the inhabitants under the subjection of another
power, or has added foreign districts to their dominion, there the feudal
maxims prevail: where the natives, from situation or disposition, have
long remained undisturbed by revolutions, there the simplicity of
patriarchal rule obtains; which is not only the first and natural form of
government of all rude nations rising from imperceptible beginnings, but
is perhaps also the highest state of perfection at which they can
ultimately arrive. It is not in this art alone that we perceive the next
step from consummate refinement, leading to simplicity.
MUCH LIMITED.
The foundation of right to government among these people seems, as I
said, to be the general consent. If a chief exerts an undue authority, or
departs from their long established customs and usages, they conceive
themselves at liberty to relinquish their allegiance. A commanding
aspect, an insinuating manner, a ready fluency in discourse, and a
penetration and sagacity in unravelling the little intricacies of their
disputes, are qualities which seldom fail to procure to their possessor
respect and influence, sometimes perhaps superior to that of an
acknowledged chief. The pangean indeed claims despotic sway, and as far
as he can find the means scruples not to exert it; but, his revenues
being insufficient to enable him to keep up any force for carrying his
mandates into execution, his actual powers are very limited, and he has
seldom found himself able to punish a turbulent subject any otherwise
than by private assassination. In appointing the heads of dusuns he does
little more than confirm the choice already made among the inhabitants,
and, were he arbitrarily to name a person of a different tribe or from
another place, he would not be obeyed. He levies no tax, nor has any
revenue (what he derives from the India Company being out of the
question), or other emolument from his subjects than what accrues to him
from the determination of causes. Appeals lie to him in all cases, and
none of the inferior courts or assemblies of proattins are competent to
pronounce sentence of death. But, all punishments being by the laws of
the country commutable for fines, and the appeals being attended with
expense and loss of time, the parties generally abide by the first
decision. Those dusuns which are situated nearest to the residence of the
pangeran, at Sungey-lamo, acknowledge somewhat more of subordination than
the distant ones, which even in case of war esteem themselves at liberty
to assist or not, as they think proper, without being liable to
consequences. In answer to a question on this point, "we are his
subjects, not his slaves," replied one of the proattins. But from the
pangeran you hear a tale widely different. He has been known to say, in a
political conversation, "such and such dusuns there will be no trouble
with; they are my powder and shot;" explaining himself by adding that he
could dispose of the inhabitants, as his ancestors had done, to purchase
ammunition in time of war.
ORIGIN OF THE PANGERAN IN RAJANG.
The father of Pangeran Mangko Raja (whose name is preserved from oblivion
by the part he took in the expulsion of the English from Fort Marlborough
in the year 1719) was the first who bore the title of pangeran of
Sungey-lamo. He had before been simply Baginda Sabyam. Until about a
hundred years ago the southern coast of Sumatra as far as Urei River was
dependant on the king of Bantam, whose Jennang (lieutenant or deputy)
came yearly to Silebar or Bencoolen, collected the pepper and filled up
the vacancies by nominating, or rather confirming in their appointments,
the proattins. Soon after that time, the English having established a
settlement at Bencoolen, the jennang informed the chiefs that he should
visit them no more, and, raising the two headmen of Sungey-lamo and
Sungey-itam (the latter of whom is chief of the Lemba country in the
neighbourhood of Bencoolen River; on which however the former possesses
some villages, and is chief of the Rejang tribes), to the dignity of
pangeran, gave into their hands the government of the country, and
withdrew his master's claim. Such is the account given by the present
possessors of the origin of their titles, which nearly corresponds with
the recorded transactions of the period. It followed naturally that the
chief thus invested should lay claim to the absolute authority of the
king whom he represented, and on the other hand that the proattins should
still consider him but as one of themselves, and pay him little more than
nominal obedience. He had no power to enforce his plea, and they retain
their privileges, taking no oath of allegiance, nor submitting to be
bound by any positive engagement. They speak of him however with respect,
and in any moderate requisition that does not affect their adat or
customs they are ready enough to aid him (tolong, as they express it),
but rather as matter of favour than acknowledged obligation.
The exemption from absolute subjection, which the dupatis contend for,
they allow in turn to their ana-buahs, whom they govern by the influence
of opinion only. The respect paid to one of these is little more than as
to an elder of a family held in esteem, and this the old men of the dusun
share with him, sitting by his side in judgment on the little differences
that arise among themselves. If they cannot determine the cause, or the
dispute be with one of a separate village, the neighbouring proattins of
the same tribe meet for the purpose. From these litigations arise some
small emoluments to the dupati, whose dignity in other respects is rather
an expense than an advantage. In the erection of public works, such as
the ballei or town hall, he contributes a larger share of materials. He
receives and entertains all strangers, his dependants furnishing their
quotas of provision on particular occasions; and their hospitality is
such that food and lodging are never refused to those by whom they are
required.
SUCCESSION OF DUPATIS.
Though the rank of dupati is not strictly hereditary the son, when of age
and capable, generally succeeds the father at his decease: if too young,
the father's brother, or such one of the family as appears most
qualified, assumes the post; not as a regent but in his own right; and
the minor comes in perhaps at the next vacancy. If this settlement
happens to displease any portion of the inhabitants they determine
amongst themselves what chief they will follow, and remove to his
village, or a few families, separating themselves from the rest, elect a
chief, but without contesting the right of him whom they leave. The
chiefs, when nominated, do not however assume the title of dupati until
confirmed by the pangeran, or by the Company's Resident. On every river
there is at least one superior proattin, termed a pambarab, who is chosen
by the rest and has the right or duty of presiding at those suits and
festivals in which two or more villages are concerned, with a larger
allotment of the fines, and (like Homer's distinguished heroes) of the
provisions also. If more tribes than one are settled on the same river
each has usually its pambarab. Not only the rivers or districts but
indeed each dusun is independent of, though not unconnected with, its
neighbours, acting in concert with them by specific consent.
INFLUENCE OF THE EUROPEANS.
The system of government among the people near the sea-coast, who,
towards the southern extreme of the island, are the planters of pepper,
is much influenced by the power of the Europeans, who are virtually the
lords paramount, and exercise in fact many of the functions of
sovereignty. The advantages derived to the subject from their sway, both
in a political and civil sense, are infinitely greater than persons at a
distance are usually inclined to suppose. Oppressions may be some times
complained of at the hands of individuals, but, to the honour of the
Company's service let me add, they have been very rare and of
inconsiderable magnitude. Where a degree of discretionary power is
intrusted to single persons abuses will, in the nature of things, arise
in some instances; cases may occur in which the private passions of the
Resident will interfere with his public duty; but the door has ever been
open for redress, and examples have been made. To destroy this influence
and authority in order to prevent these consequences were to cut off a
limb in order to remove a partial complaint. By the Company's power the
districts over which it extends are preserved in uninterrupted peace.
Were it not for this power every dusun of every river would be at war
with its neighbour. The natives themselves allow it, and it was evinced,
even in the short space of time during which the English were absent from
the coast, in a former war with France. Hostilities of district against
district, so frequent among the independent nations to the northward,
are, within the Company's jurisdiction, things unheard of; and those
dismal catastrophes which in all the Malayan islands are wont to attend
on private feuds but very rarely happen. "I tell you honestly," said a
dupati, much irritated against one of his neighbours, "that it is only
you," pointing to the Resident of Laye, "that prevents my plunging this
weapon into his breast." The Resident is also considered as the protector
of the people from the injustice and oppression of the chiefs. This
oppression, though not carried on in the way of open force, which the
ill-defined nature of their authority would not support, is scarcely less
grievous to the sufferer. Expounders of the law, and deeply versed in the
chicanery of it, they are ever lying in wait to take advantage of the
necessitous and ignorant, till they have stripped them of their property,
their family, and their personal liberty. To prevent these practices the
partial administration of justice in consequence of bribes, the
subornation of witnesses, and the like iniquities, a continual exertion
of the Resident's attention and authority is required, and, as that
authority is accidentally relaxed, the country falls into confusion.
It is true that this interference is not strictly consonant with the
spirit of the original contracts entered into by the Company with the
native chiefs, who, in consideration of protection from their enemies,
regular purchase of the produce of their country, and a gratuity to
themselves proportioned to the quantity of that produce, undertake on
their part to oblige their dependants to plant pepper, to refrain from
the use of opium, the practice of gaming, and other vicious excesses, and
to punish them in case of non-compliance. But, however prudent or equal
these contracts might have been at the time their form was established, a
change of circumstances, the gradual and necessary increase of the
Company's sway which the peace and good of the country required, and the
tacit consent of the chiefs themselves (among whom the oldest living have
never been used to regard the Company, who have conferred on them their
respective dignities, as their equals, or as trading in their districts
upon sufferance), have long antiquated them; and custom and experience
have introduced in their room an influence on one side, and a
subordination on the other, more consistent with the power of the Company
and more suitable to the benefits derived from the moderate and humane
exercise of that power. Prescription has given its sanction to this
change, and the people have submitted to it without murmuring, as it was
introduced not suddenly but with the natural course of events, and
bettered the condition of the whole while it tended to curb the rapacity
of the few. Then let not short-sighted or designing persons, upon false
principles of justice, or ill-digested notions of liberty, rashly
endeavour to overturn a scheme of government, doubtless not perfect, but
which seems best adapted to the circumstances it has respect to, and
attended with the fewest disadvantages. Let them not vainly exert
themselves to procure redress of imaginary grievances, for persons who
complain not, or to infuse a spirit of freedom and independence, in a
climate where nature possibly never intended they should flourish, and
which, if obtained, would apparently be attended with effects that all
their advantages would badly compensate.
GOVERNMENT IN PASSUMMAH.
In Passummah, which nearly borders upon Rejang, to the southward, there
appears some difference in the mode of government, though the same spirit
pervades both; the chiefs being equally without a regular coercive power,
and the people equally free in the choice of whom they will serve. This
is an extensive and comparatively populous country, bounded on the north
by that of Lamattang, and on the south-east by that of Lampong, the river
of Padang-guchi marking the division from the latter, near the sea-coast.
It is distinguished into Passummah lebbar, or the broad, which lies
inland, extending to within a day's journey of Muaro Mulang, on Palembang
River; and Passummah ulu Manna, which is on the western side of the range
of hills, whither the inhabitants are said to have mostly removed in
order to avoid the government of Palembang.
It is governed by four pangerans, who are independent of each other but
acknowledge a kind of sovereignty in the sultan of Palembang, from whom
they hold a chap (warrant) and receive a salin (investiture) on their
accession. This subordination is the consequence of the king of Bantam's
former influence over this part of the island, Palembang being a port
anciently dependent on him, and now on the Dutch, whose instrument the
sultan is. There is an inferior pangeran in almost every dusun (that
title being nearly as common in Passummah as dupati towards the
sea-coast) who are chosen by the inhabitants, and confirmed by the
superior pangeran, whom they assist in the determination of causes. In
the low country, where the pepper-planters reside, the title of kalippah
prevails; which is a corruption of the Arabic word khalifah, signifying a
vicegerent. Each of these presides over various tribes, which have been
collected at different times (some of them being colonists from Rejang,
as well as from a country to the eastward of them, named Haji) and have
ranged themselves, some under one and some under another chief; having
also their superior proattin, or pambarab, as in the northern districts.
On the rivers of Peeno, Manna, and Bankannon are two kalippahs
respectively, some of whom are also pangerans, which last seems to be
here rather a title of honour, or family distinction, than of magistracy.
They are independent of each other, owning no superior; and their number,
according to the ideas of the people, cannot be increased.