MODES OF MARRIAGE, AND CUSTOMS RELATIVE THERETO.
POLYGAMY.
FESTIVALS.
GAMES.
COCK-FIGHTING.
USE AND EFFECTS OF OPIUM.
MOTIVES FOR ALTERING SOME OF THEIR MARRIAGE CUSTOMS.
By much the greater number of the legal disputes among these people have
their source in the intricacy attending their marriage contracts. In most
uncivilized countries these matters are very simple, the dictates of
nature being obeyed, or the calls of appetite satisfied, with little
ceremony or form of convention; but with the Sumatrans the difficulties,
both precedent and subsequent, are increased to a degree unknown even in
the most refined states. To remedy these inconveniences, which might be
supposed to deter men from engaging in marriage, was the view of the
Resident of Laye, before mentioned, who prevailed upon them to simplify
their engagements, as the means of preventing litigation between
families, and of increasing the population of the country. How far his
liberal views will be answered by having thus influenced the people to
change their customs, whether they will not soon relapse into the ancient
track; and whether in fact the cause that he supposed did actually
contribute to retard population, I shall not pretend to determine; but as
the last is a point on which a difference of opinion prevails I shall
take the liberty of quoting here the sentiments of another servant of the
Company (the late Mr. John Crisp) who possessed an understanding highly
enlightened.
REASONS AGAINST THIS ALTERATION.
This part of the island is in a low state of population, but it is an
error to ascribe this to the mode of obtaining wives by purchase. The
circumstance of children constituting part of the property of the parents
proves a most powerful incentive to matrimony, and there is not perhaps
any country on the face of the earth where marriage is more general than
here, instances of persons of either sex passing their lives in a state
of celibacy being extremely rare. The necessity of purchasing does not
prove such an obstacle to matrimony as is supposed. Was it indeed true
that every man was obliged to remain single till he had accumulated, from
the produce of his pepper-garden, a sum adequate to the purchase of a
wife, married pairs would truly be scarce. But the people have other
resources; there are few families who are not in possession of some small
substance; they breed goats and buffaloes, and in general keep in reserve
some small sum for particular purposes. The purchase-money of the
daughter serves also to provide wives for the sons. Certain it is that
the fathers are rarely at a loss for money to procure them wives so soon
as they become marriageable. In the districts under my charge are about
eight thousand inhabitants, among whom I do not conceive it would be
possible to find ten instances of men of the age of thirty years
unmarried. We must then seek for other causes of the paucity of
inhabitants, and indeed they are sufficiently obvious; among these we may
reckon that the women are by nature unprolific, and cease gestation at an
early age; that, almost totally unskilled in the medical art, numbers
fall victims to the endemic diseases of a climate nearly as fatal to its
indigenous inhabitants as to the strangers who settle among them: to
which we may add that the indolence and inactivity of the natives tend to
relax and enervate the bodily frame, and to abridge the natural period of
their lives.
...
MODES OF MARRIAGE.
The modes of marriage, according to the original institutions of these
people, are by jujur, by ambel anak, or by semando. The jujur is a
certain sum of money given by one man to another as a consideration for
the person of his daughter, whose situation, in this case, differs not
much from that of a slave to the man she marries, and to his family. His
absolute property in her depends however upon some nice circumstances.
Beside the batang jujur (or main sum) there are certain appendages or
branches, one of which, the tali kulo, of five dollars, is usually, from
motives of delicacy or friendship, left unpaid, and so long as that is
the case a relationship is understood to subsist between the two
families, and the parents of the woman have a right to interfere on
occasions of ill treatment: the husband is also liable to be fined for
wounding her, with other limitations of absolute right. When that sum is
finally paid, which seldom happens but in cases of violent quarrel, the
tali kulo (tie of relationship) is said to be putus (broken), and the
woman becomes to all intents the slave of her lord.*
(*Footnote. I cannot omit to remark here that, however apposite the word
tali, which in Malayan signifies a cord, may be to the subject of the
marriage tie, there is very strong evidence of the term, as applied to
this ceremony, having been adopted from the customs of the Hindu
inhabitants of the peninsula of India, in whose language it has a
different meaning. Among others who have described their rites is M.
Sonnerat. In speaking of the mode of marriage called pariam, which, like
the jujur, n'est autre chose qu'un achat que le mari fait de sa femme, he
says, le mari doit aussi fournir le tali, petit joyau d'or, qu'il attache
avec un cordon au col de la fille; c'est la derniere ceremonie; elle
donne la sanction au marriage, qui ne peut plus etre rompu des que le
tali est attache. Voyage aux Indes etc. tome 1 page 70. The reader will
also find the Sumatran mode of marriage by ambel anak, or adoption,
exactly described at page 72. An engraving of the tali is given by P.
Paolino, Systema Brahmanicum tab. 22. This resemblance is not confined to
the rites of marriage, for it is remarked by Sir W. Jones that, "among
the laws of the Sumatrans two positive rules concerning sureties and
interest appear to be taken word for word from the Indian legislators."
Asiatic Researches Volume 3 page 9.)
She has then no title to claim a divorce in any predicament; and he may
sell her, making only the first offer to her relations. The other
appendages as already mentioned are the tulis tanggil (the meaning of
which I cannot satisfactorily ascertain, this and many other of the legal
terms being in the Rejang or the Passummah and not the Malayan language)
and the upah daun kodo, which is a consideration for the expense of the
marriage feast, paid to the girl's parent, who provides it. But sometimes
it is deposited at the wedding, when a distribution is made of it amongst
the old people present. The words allude to the leaf in which the rice is
served up. These additional sums are seldom paid or claimed before the
principal is defrayed, of which a large proportion, as fifty, eighty, and
sometimes a hundred and four dollars, is laid down at the time of
marriage, or in the first visit (after the parties are determined in
their regards) made by the father of the young man, or the bujang
himself, to the father of the woman. Upon opening his design this money
is tendered as a present, and the other's acceptance of it is a token
that he is inclined to forward the match. It lies often in his hands
three, six, or twelve months before the marriage is consummated. He
sometimes sends for more, and is seldom refused. Until at least fifty
dollars are thus deposited the man cannot take his wife home; but so long
as the matter continues dalam rasa-an (under consideration) it would be
deemed scandalous in the father to listen to any other proposals. When
there is a difficulty in producing the necessary sum it is not uncommon
to resort to an expedient termed mengiring jujur, that is, to continue a
debtor with the family until he can raise money sufficient to redeem
himself; and after this long credit is usually given for the remainder.
Years often elapse, if the families continue on good terms, without the
debt being demanded, particularly when a hundred and four dollars have
been paid, unless distress obliges them to it. Sometimes it remains
unadjusted to the second and third generation, and it is not uncommon to
see a man suing for the jujur of the sister of his grandfather. These
debts constitute in fact the chief part of their substance; and a person
is esteemed rich who has several of them due to him for his daughters,
sisters, aunts, and great aunts. Debts of this nature are looked upon as
sacred, and are scarcely ever lost. In Passummah, if the race of a man is
extinct, and some of these remain unpaid, the dusun or village to which
the family belonged must make it good to the creditor; but this is not
insisted upon amongst the Rejangs.
In lieu of paying the jujur a barter transaction, called libei, sometimes
takes place, where one gadis (virgin) is given in exchange for another;
and it is not unusual to borrow a girl for this purpose from a friend or
relation, the borrower binding himself to replace her or pay her jujur
when required, A man who has a son and daughter gives the latter in
exchange for a wife to the former. The person who receives her disposes
of her as his own child or marries her himself. A brother will give his
sister in exchange for a wife, or, in default of such, procure a cousin
for the purpose. If the girl given in exchange be under age a certain
allowance per annum is made till she becomes marriageable. Beguppok is a
mode of marriage differing a little from the common jujur, and probably
only taking place where a parent wants to get off a child labouring under
some infirmity or defect. A certain sum is in this case fixed below the
usual custom, which, when paid, is in full for her value, without any
appendages. In other cases likewise the jujur is sometimes lessened and
sometimes increased by mutual agreement; but on trials it is always
estimated at a hundred and twenty dollars. If a wife dies soon after
marriage, or at any time without children, the full jujur cannot be
claimed; it is reduced to eighty dollars; but should more than that have
been laid down in the interim there is no refunding. The jujur of a
widow, which is generally eighty dollars, without appendages, is again
reduced upon a third marriage, allowances being made for dilapidation. A
widow being with child cannot marry again till she is delivered, without
incurring a penalty. In divorces it is the same. If there be no
appearance of pregnancy she must yet abstain from making another choice
during the period of three months and ten days.
When the relations and friends of the man go in form to the parents of
the girl to settle the terms of the marriage they pay at that time the
adat besasala, or earnest, of six dollars generally; and these kill a
goat or a few fowls to entertain them. It is usually some space of time
(except in cases of telari gadis or elopement) after the payment of the
besasala, before the wedding takes place; but, when the father has
received that, he cannot give his daughter to any other person without
incurring a fine, which the young lady sometimes renders him liable to;
for whilst the old folk are planning a match by patutan, or regular
agreement between families, it frequently happens that miss disappears
with a more favoured swain and secures a match of her own choice. The
practice styled telari gadis is not the least common way of determining a
marriage, and from a spirit of indulgence and humanity, which few codes
can boast, has the sanction of the laws. The father has only the power
left of dictating the mode of marriage, but cannot take his daughter away
if the lover is willing to comply with the custom in such cases. The girl
must be lodged, unviolated, in the house of some respectable family till
the relations are advised of the enlevement and settle the terms. If
however upon immediate pursuit they are overtaken on the road, she may be
forced back, but not after she has taken sanctuary.
By the Mosaic law, if a man left a widow without children his brother was
to marry her. Among the Sumatrans, with or without children, the brother,
or nearest male relation of the deceased, unmarried (the father
excepted), takes the widow. This is practised both by Malays and country
people. The brother, in taking the widow to himself, becomes answerable
for what may remain due of her purchase money, and in every respect
represents the deceased. This is phrased ganti tikar
bantal'nia--supplying his place on his mat and pillow.
CHASTITY OF THE WOMEN.
Chastity prevails more perhaps among these than any other people. It is
so materially the interest of the parents to preserve the virtue of their
daughters unsullied, as they constitute the chief of their substance,
that they are particularly watchful in this respect. But as marriages in
general do not take place so early as the forwardness of nature in that
climate would admit, it will sometimes happen, notwithstanding their
precaution, that a young woman, not choosing to wait her father's
pleasure, tastes the fruit by stealth. When this is discovered he can
oblige the man to marry her, and pay the jujur; or, if he chooses to keep
his daughter, the seducer must make good the difference he has occasioned
in her value, and also pay the fine, called tippong bumi, for removing
the stain from the earth. Prostitution for hire is I think unknown in the
country, and confined to the more polite bazaars, where there is usually
a concourse of sailors and others who have no honest settlement of their
own, and whom, therefore, it is impossible to restrain from promiscuous
concubinage. At these places vice generally reigns in a degree
proportioned to the number and variety of people of different nations who
inhabit them or occasionally resort thither. From the scenes which these
sea-ports present travellers too commonly form their judgment, and
imprudently take upon them to draw, for the information of the world, a
picture of the manners of a people.
The different species of horrid and disgustful crimes, which are
emphatically denominated, against nature, are unknown on Sumatra; nor
have any of their languages terms to express such ideas.
INCEST.
Incest, or the intermarriage of persons within a certain degree of
consanguinity, which is, perhaps (at least after the first degree),
rather an offence against the institutions of human prudence than a
natural crime, is forbidden by their customs and punishable by fine: yet
the guilt is often expiated by a ceremony, and the marriages in many
instances confirmed.
ADULTERY.
Adultery is punishable by fine; but the crime is rare, and suits on the
subject still less frequent. The husband, it is probable, either conceals
his shame or revenges it with his own hand.
DIVORCES.
If a man would divorce a wife he has married by jujur he may claim back
what he has paid in part, less twenty-five dollars, the adat charo, for
the damage he has done her; but if he has paid the jujur in full the
relations may choose whether they will receive her or not; if not he may
sell her. If a man has paid part of a jujur but cannot raise the
remainder, though repeatedly dunned for it, the parents of the girl may
obtain a divorce; but if it is not with the husband's concurrence they
lose the advantage of the charo, and must refund all they have received.
A woman married by jujur must bring with her effects to the amount of ten
dollars, or, if not, it is deducted from the sum; if she brings more the
husband is accountable for the difference. The original ceremony of
divorce consists in cutting a rattancane in two, in presence of the
parties, their relations, and the chiefs of the country.
SECOND MODE OF MARRIAGE.
In the mode of marriage by ambel anak the father of a virgin makes choice
of some young man for her husband, generally from an inferior family,
which renounces all further right to, or interest in, him, and he is
taken into the house of his father-in-law, who kills a buffalo on the
occasion, and receives twenty dollars from the son's relations. After
this the buruk baik'nia (the good and bad of him) is vested in the wife's
family. If he murders or robs they pay the bangun, or the fine. If he is
murdered they receive the bangun. They are liable to any debts he may
contract after marriage; those prior to it remaining with his parents. He
lives in the family in a state between that of a son and a debtor. He
partakes as a son of what the house affords, but has no property in
himself. His rice plantation, the produce of his pepper-garden, with
everything that he can gain or earn, belong to the family. He is liable
to be divorced at their pleasure, and, though he has children, must leave
all, and return naked as he came. The family sometimes indulge him with
leave to remove to a house of his own, and take his wife with him; but
he, his children, and effects are still their property. If he has not
daughters by the marriage he may redeem himself and wife by paying her
jujur; but if there are daughters before they become emancipated the
difficulty is enhanced, because the family are likewise entitled to their
value. It is common however when they are upon good terms to release him
on the payment of one jujur, or at most with the addition of an adat of
fifty dollars. With this addition he may insist upon a release whilst his
daughters are not marriageable. If the family have paid any debts for him
he must also make them good. Should he contract more than they approve
of, and they fear his adding to them, they procure a divorce, and send
him back to his parents; but must pay his debts to that time. If he is a
notorious spendthrift they outlaw him by means of a writ presented to the
magistrate. These are inscribed on slips of bamboo with a sharp
instrument, and I have several of them in my possession. They must banish
him from home, and if they receive him again, or assist him with the
smallest sum, they are liable to all his debts. On the prodigal son's
return, and assurance of amendment, this writ may be redeemed on payment
of five dollars to the proattins, and satisfying the creditors. This kind
of marriage is productive of much confusion, for till the time it takes
place the young man belongs to one dusun and family, and afterwards to
another, and as they have no records to refer to there is great
uncertainty in settling the time when debts were contracted, and the
like. Sometimes the redemption of the family and their return to the
former dusun take place in the second or third generation; and in many
cases it is doubtful whether they ever took place or not; the two parties
contradicting each other, and perhaps no evidence to refer to. Hence
arise various and intricate bechars.
THIRD, OR MALAYAN MODE OF MARRIAGE.
Besides the modes of marriage above described, a third form, called
semando, has been adopted from the Malays, and thence termed semando
malayo or mardika (free). This marriage is a regular treaty between the
parties, on the footing of equality. The adat paid to the girl's friends
has usually been twelve dollars. The agreement stipulates that all
effects, gains, or earnings are to be equally the property of both, and
in case of divorce by mutual consent the stock, debts, and credits are to
be equally divided. If the man only insists on the divorce he gives the
woman her half of the effects, and loses the twelve dollars he has paid.
If the woman only claims the divorce she forfeits her right to the
proportion of the effects, but is entitled to keep her tikar, bantal, and
dandan (paraphernalia), and her relations are liable to pay back the
twelve dollars; but it is seldom demanded. This mode, doubtless the most
conformable to our ideas of conjugal right and felicity, is that which
the chiefs of the Rejang country have formally consented to establish
throughout their jurisdiction, and to their orders the influence of the
Malayan priests will contribute to give efficacy.
In the ambel anak marriage, according to the institutions of Passummah,
when the father resolves to dismiss the husband of his daughter and send
him back to his dusun the sum for which he can redeem his wife and family
is a hundred dollars: and if he can raise that, and the woman is willing
to go with him, the father cannot refuse them; and now the affair is
changed into a kulo marriage; the man returns to his former tungguan
(settlement or family) and becomes of more consequence in society. These
people are no strangers to that sentiment which we call a regard to
family. There are some families among them more esteemed than others,
though not graced with any title or employment in the state. The origin
of this distinction it is difficult to trace; but it may have arisen from
a succession of men of abilities, or from the reputation for wisdom or
valour of some ancestor. Everyone has a regard to his race; and the
probability of its being extinct is esteemed a great unhappiness. This is
what they call tungguan putus, and the expression is used by the lowest
member of the community. To have a wife, a family, collateral relations,
and a settled place of residence is to have a tungguan, and this they are
anxious to support and perpetuate. It is with this view that, when a
single female only remains of a family, they marry her by ambel anak; in
which mode the husband's consequence is lost in the wife's, and in her
children the tungguan of her father is continued. They find her a husband
that will menegga tungguan, or, as it is expressed amongst the Rejangs
menegga rumah, set up the house again.
The semando marriage is little known in Passummah. I recollect that a
pangeran of Manna, having lost a son by a marriage of this kind with a
Malay woman, she refused upon the father's death to let the boy succeed
to his dignities, and at the same time become answerable for his debts,
and carried him with her from the country; which was productive of much
confusion. The regulations there in respect to incontinence have much
severity, and fall particularly hard on the girl's father, who not only
has his daughter spoiled but must also pay largely for her frailty. To
the northward the offence is not punished with so much rigour, yet the
instances are there said to be rarer, and marriage is more usually the
consequence. In other respects the customs of Passummah and Rejang are
the same in these matters.
RITES OF MARRIAGE.
The rites of marriage, nikah (from the Arabian), consist simply in
joining the hands of the parties and pronouncing them man and wife,
without much ceremony excepting the entertainment which is given on the
occasion. This is performed by one of the fathers or the chief of the
dusun, according to the original customs of the country; but where
Mahometanism has found its way, a priest or imam executes the business.
COURTSHIP.
But little apparent courtship precedes their marriages. Their manners do
not admit of it, the bujang and gadis (youth of each sex) being carefully
kept asunder, and the latter seldom trusted from under the wing of their
mothers. Besides, courtship with us includes the idea of humble entreaty
on the man's side, and favour and condescension on the part of the woman,
who bestows person and property for love. The Sumatran on the contrary,
when he fixes his choice and pays all that he is worth for the object of
it, may naturally consider the obligation on his side. But still they are
not without gallantry. They preserve a degree of delicacy and respect
towards the sex, which might justify their retorting on many of the
polished nations of antiquity the epithet of barbarians. The
opportunities which the young people have of seeing and conversing with
each other are at the bimbangs, or public festivals, held at the balei,
or town hall of the dusun. On these occasions the unmarried people meet
together and dance and sing in company. It may be supposed that the young
ladies cannot be long without their particular admirers. The men, when
determined in their regards, generally employ an old woman as their
agent, by whom they make known their sentiments and send presents to the
female of their choice. The parents then interfere and, the preliminaries
being settled, a bimbang takes place.
MARRIAGE FESTIVALS.
At these festivals a goat, a buffalo, or several, according to the rank
of the parties, are killed, to entertain not only the relations and
invited guests but all the inhabitants of the neighbouring country who
choose to repair to them. The greater the concourse the more is the
credit of the host, who is generally on these occasions the father of the
girl; but the different branches of the family, and frequently all the
people of the dusun, contribute a quota of rice.
ORDER OBSERVED.
The young women proceed in a body to the upper end of the balei where
there is a part divided off for them by a curtain. The floor is spread
with their best mats, and the sides and ceiling of that extremity of the
building are hung with pieces of chintz, palampores, and the like. They
do not always make their appearance before dinner; that time, with part
of the afternoon, previous to a second or third meal, being appropriated
to cock-fighting and other diversions peculiar to the men. Whilst the
young are thus employed the old men consult together upon any affair that
may be at the time in agitation; such as repairing a public building or
making reprisals upon the cattle of a neighbouring people. The bimbangs
are often given on occasions of business only, and, as they are apt to be
productive of cabals, the Europeans require that they shall not be held
without their knowledge and approbation. To give authority to their
contracts and other deeds, whether of a public or private nature, they
always make one of these feasts. Writings, say they, may be altered or
counterfeited, but the memory of what is transacted and concluded in the
presence of a thousand witnesses
must remain sacred. Sometimes, in token of the final determination of an
affair, they cut a notch in a post, before the chiefs, which they call
taka kayu.
AMUSEMENT OF DANCING.
In the evening their softer amusements take place, of which the dances
are the principal. These are performed either singly or by two women, two
men, or with both mixed. Their motions and attitudes are usually slow,
and too much forced to be graceful; approaching often to the lascivious,
and not unfrequently the ludicrous. This is I believe the general opinion
formed of them by Europeans, but it may be the effect of prejudice.
Certain I am that our usual dances are in their judgment to the full as
ridiculous. The minuets they compare to the fighting of two game-cocks,
alternately approaching and receding. Our country dances they esteem too
violent and confused, without showing grace or agility. The stage dances
I have not a doubt would please them. Part of the female dress, called
the salendang, which is usually of silk with a gold head, is tied round
the waist, and the ends of this they at times extend behind them with
their hands. They bend forward as they dance, and usually carry a fan,
which they close and strike smartly against their elbows at particular
cadences. They keep time well, and the partners preserve a consistency
with each other though the figure and steps are ad libitum. A brisker
movement is sometimes adopted which proves more conformable to the taste
of the English spectators.
SINGING.
Dancing is not the only amusement on these occasions. A gadis sometimes
rises and, leaning her face on her arm, supporting herself against a
pillar, or the shoulder of one of her companions, with her back to the
audience, begins a tender song. She is soon taken up and answered by one
of the bujangs in company, whose greatest pretensions to gallantry and
fashion are founded on an adroitness at this polite accomplishment. The
uniform subject on such occasions is love, and, as the words are
extempore, there are numberless degrees of merit in the composition,
which is sometimes surprisingly well turned, quaint, and even witty.
Professed story-tellers are sometimes introduced, who are raised on a
little stage and during several hours arrest the attention of their
audience by the relation of wonderful and interesting adventures. There
are also characters of humour amongst them who, by buffoonery, mimicry,
punning, repartee, and satire (rather of the sardonic kind) are able to
keep the company in laughter at intervals during the course of a night's
entertainment. The assembly seldom breaks up before daylight, and these
bimbangs are often continued for several days and nights together till
their stock of provisions is exhausted. The young men frequent them in
order to look out for wives, and the lasses of course set themselves off
to the best advantage.
DRESSES.
They wear their best silken dresses, of their own weaving; as many
ornaments of filigree as they possess; silver rings upon their arms and
legs; and earrings of a particular construction. Their hair is variously
adorned with flowers and perfumed with oil of benzoin. Civet is also in
repute, but more used by the men.
COSMETIC USED, AND MODE OF PREPARING IT.
To render their skin fine, smooth, and soft they make use of a white
cosmetic called pupur. The mode of preparing it is as follows. The basis
is fine rice, which is a long time steeped in water and let to ferment,
during which process the water becomes of a deep red colour and highly
putrid, when it is drained off, and fresh added successively until the
water remains clear, and the rice subsides in the form of a fine white
paste. It is then exposed to the sun to dry, and, being reduced to a
powder, they mix with it ginger, the leaves of a plant called by them
dilam, and by Europeans patch-leaf (Melissa lotoria, R.), which gives to
it a peculiar smell, and also, as is supposed, a cooling quality. They
add likewise the flowers of the jagong (maize); kayu chendana
(sandalwood); and the seeds of a plant called there kapas antu
(fairy-cotton), which is the Hibiscus abelmoschus, or musk seed. All
these ingredients, after being moistened and well mixed together, are
made up into little balls, and when they would apply the cosmetic these
are diluted with a drop of water, rubbed between the hands, and then on
the face, neck, and shoulders. They have an apprehension, probably well
founded, that a too abundant or frequent application will, by stopping
the pores of the skin, bring on a fever. It is used with good effect to
remove that troublesome complaint, so well known to Europeans in India,
by the name of the prickly heat; but it is not always safe for strangers
thus to check the operations of nature in a warm climate. The Sumatran
girls, as well as our English maidens, entertain a favourable opinion of
the virtues of morning dew as a beautifier, and believe that by rubbing
it to the roots of the hair it will strengthen and thicken it. With this
view they take pains to catch it before sunrise in vessels as it falls.
CONSUMMATION OF MARRIAGES.
If a wedding is the occasion of the bimbang the couple are married,
perhaps, the second or third day; but it may be two or three more ere the
husband can get possession of his bride; the old matrons making it a rule
to prevent him, as long as possible, and the bride herself holding it a
point of honour to defend to extremity that jewel which she would yet be
disappointed in preserving.*
(*Footnote. It is recorded that the jealousy between the English and
Dutch at Bantam arose from a preference shown to the former by the king
at a festival which he gave upon obtaining a victory of this nature,
which his bride had long disputed with him. For a description of a
Malayan wedding, with an excellent plate representing the conclusion of
the ceremony and the sleeping apartment, I beg to refer the reader to
Captain Forrest's Voyage to New Guinea page 286 quarto edition. The
bed-place is described at page 232 and the processional car (perarakan)
at page 241. His whole account of the domestic manners of the people of
Mindanao, at the court of which he lived on terms of familiarity, will be
found highly amusing.)
They sit up in state at night on raised cushions, in their best clothes
and trinkets. They are sometimes loaded on the occasion with all the
finery of their relations, or even the whole dusun, and carefully eased
of it when the ceremony is over. But this is not the case with the
children of persons of rank. I remember being present at the marriage of
a young woman, whose beauty would not have disgraced any country, with a
son of Raddin, prince of Madura, to whom the English gave protection from
the power of the Dutch after his father had fallen a sacrifice.* She was
decked in unborrowed plumes. Her dress was eminently calculated to do
justice to a fine person; her hair, in which consists their chief pride,
was disposed with extreme grace; and an uncommon elegance and taste were
displayed in the workmanship and adjustment of her ornaments. It must be
confessed however that this taste is by no means general, especially
amongst the country people. Simplicity, so essential to the idea, is the
characteristic of a rude and quite uncivilized people, and is again
adopted by men in their highest state of refinement. The Sumatrans stand
removed from both these extremes. Rich and splendid articles of dress and
furniture, though not often procured, are the objects of their vanity and
ambition.
(*Footnote. The circumstances of this disgraceful affair are preserved in
a book entitled A Voyage to the East Indies in 1747 and 1748. This Raddin
Tamanggung, a most intelligent and respectable man, died at Bencoolen in
the year 1790. His sons possess the good qualities of their father, and
are employed in the Company's service.)
The bimbangs are conducted with great decorum and regularity. The old
women are very attentive to the conduct of the girls, and the male
relations are highly jealous of any insults that may be shown them. A lad
at one of these entertainments asked another his opinion of a gadis who
was then dancing. "If she was plated with gold," replied he, "I would not
take her for my concubine, much less for my wife." A brother of the girl
happened to be within hearing, and called him to account for the
reflection thrown on his sister. Krises were drawn but the bystanders
prevented mischief. The brother appeared the next day to take the law of
the defamer, but the gentleman, being of the risau description, had
absconded, and was not to be found.
NUMBER OF WIVES.
The customs of the Sumatrans permit their having as many wives by jujur
as they can compass the purchase of or afford to maintain; but it is
extremely rare that an instance occurs of their having more than one, and
that only among a few of the chiefs. This continence they in some measure
owe to their poverty. The dictates of frugality are more powerful with
them than the irregular calls of appetite, and make them decline an
indulgence that their law does not restrain them from. In talking of
polygamy they allow it to be the privilege of the rich, but regard it as
a refinement which the poor Rejangs cannot pretend to. Some young risaus
have been known to take wives in different places, but the father of the
first, as soon as he hears of the second marriage, procures a divorce. A
man married by semando cannot take a second wife without repudiating the
first for this obvious reason that two or more persons could not be
equally entitled to the half of his effects.
QUESTION OF POLYGAMY.
Montesquieu infers that the law which permits polygamy is physically
conformable to the climate of Asia. The season of female beauty precedes
that of their reason, and from its prematurity soon decays. The empire of
their charms is short. It is therefore natural, the president observes,
that a man should leave one wife to take another: that he should seek a
renovation of those charms which had withered in his possession. But are
these the real circumstances of polygamy? Surely not. It implies the
contemporary enjoyment of women in the same predicament; and I should
consider it as a vice that has its source in the influence of a warm
atmosphere upon the passions of men, which, like the cravings of other
disordered appetites, make them miscalculate their wants. It is probably
the same influence, on less rigid nerves, that renders their thirst of
revenge so much more violent than among northern nations; but we are not
therefore to pronounce murder to be physically conformable to a southern
climate. Far be it from my intention however to put these passions on a
level; I only mean to show that the president's reasoning proves too
much. It must further be considered that the genial warmth which expands
the desires of the men, and prompts a more unlimited exertion of their
faculties, does not inspire their constitutions with proportionate
vigour; but on the contrary renders them in this respect inferior to the
inhabitants of the temperate zone; whilst it equally influences the
desires of the opposite sex without being found to diminish from their
capacity of enjoyment. From which I would draw this conclusion, that if
nature intended that one woman only should be the companion of one man,
in the colder regions of the earth it appears also intended a fortiori
that the same law should be observed in the hotter; inferring nature's
design, not from the desires, but from the abilities with which she has
endowed mankind.
Montesquieu has further suggested that the inequality in the comparative
numbers of each sex born in Asia, which is represented to be greatly
superior on the female side, may have a relation to the law that allows
polygamy. But there is strong reason to deny the reality of this supposed
excess. The Japanese account, taken from Kaempfer, which makes them to be
in the proportion of twenty-two to eighteen, is very inconclusive, as the
numbering of the inhabitants of a great city can furnish no proper test;
and the account of births at Bantam, which states the number of girls to
be ten to one boy, is not only manifestly absurd, but positively false. I
can take upon me to assert that the proportion of the sexes throughout
Sumatra does not sensibly differ from that ascertained in Europe; nor
could I ever learn from the inhabitants of the many eastern islands whom
I have conversed with that they were conscious of any disproportion in
this respect.
CONNEXION BETWEEN POLYGAMY AND PURCHASE OF WIVES.
But from whatever source we derive polygamy its prevalence seems to be
universally attended with the practice of giving a valuable consideration
for the woman, instead of receiving a dowry with her. This is a natural
consequence. Where each man endeavours to engross several, the demand for
the commodity, as a merchant would express it, is increased, and the
price of course enhanced. In Europe on the contrary, where the demand is
small; whether owing to the paucity of males from continual diminution;
their coldness of constitution, which suffers them rather to play with
the sentimental than act from the animal passion; their corruption of
manners leading them to promiscuous concubinage; or, in fine, the
extravagant luxury of the times, which too often renders a family an
insupportable burden--whatever may be the cause it becomes necessary, in
order to counteract it and produce an additional incitement to the
marriage state, that a premium be given with the females. We find in the
history of the earliest ages of the world that, where a plurality of
women was allowed of, by law or custom, they were obtained by money or
service. The form of marriage by semando among the Malays, which admits
but of one partner, requires no sum to be paid by the husband to the
relations of the wife except a trifle, by way of token, or to defray the
expenses of the wedding-feast. The circumstance of the rejangs confining
themselves to one, and at the same time giving a price for their wives,
would seem an exception to the general rule laid down; but this is an
accidental and perhaps temporary restraint, arising, it may be, from the
European influence, which tends to make them regular and industrious, but
keeps them poor: affords the means of subsistence to all, but the
opportunity of acquiring riches to few or none. In their genuine state
war and plunder caused a rapid fluctuation of property; the little wealth
now among them, derived mostly from the India Company's expenditure,
circulates through the country in an equal stream, returning chiefly,
like the water exhaled in vapours from the sea, to its original source.
The custom of giving jujurs had most probably its foundation in polygamy;
and the superstructure subsists, though its basis is partly mouldered
away; but, being scarcely tenantable, the inhabitants are inclined to
quit, and suffer it to fall to the ground. Moderation in point of women
destroying their principle, the jujurs appear to be devoid of policy.
Open a new spring of luxury, and polygamy, now confined to a few
individuals amongst the chiefs, will spread throughout the people. Beauty
will be in high request; each fair one will be sought for by many
competitors; and the payment of the jujur be again esteemed a reasonable
equivalent for possession. Their acknowledging the custom under the
present circumstances to be a prejudicial one, so contrary to the spirit
of eastern manners, which is ever marked with a blind veneration for the
establishments of antiquity, contributes to strengthen considerably the
opinion I have advanced.
GAMING.
Through every rank of the people there prevails a strong spirit of
gaming, which is a vice that readily insinuates itself into minds
naturally indisposed to the avocations of industry; and, being in general
a sedentary occupation, is more adapted to a warm climate, where bodily
exertion is in few instances considered as an amusement.
DICE. OTHER MODES.
Beside the common species of gambling with dice, which, from the term
dadu applied to it, was evidently introduced by the Portuguese, they have
several others; as the judi, a mode of playing with small shells, which
are taken up by handfuls, and, being counted out by a given number at a
time (generally that of the party engaged), the success is determined by
the fractional number remaining, the amount of which is previously
guessed at by each of the party.
CHESS.
They have also various games on chequered boards or other delineations,
and persons of superior rank are in general versed in the game of chess,
which they term main gajah, or the game of the elephant, naming the
pieces as follows: king, raja; queen or vizir, mantri; bishop or
elephant, gajah; knight or horse, kuda; castle, rook, or chariot, ter;
and pawn or foot-soldier, bidak. For check they use the word sah; and for
checkmate, mat or mati. Among these names the only one that appears to
require observation as being peculiar is that for the castle or rook,
which they have borrowed from the Tamul language of the peninsula of
India, wherein the word ter (answering to the Sanskrit rat'ha) signifies
a chariot (particularly such as are drawn in the processions of certain
divinities), and not unaptly transferred to this military game to
complete the constituent parts of an army. Gambling, especially with
dice, is rigorously forbidden throughout the pepper districts, because it
is not only the child, but the parent of idleness, and by the events of
play often throws whole villages into confusion. Debts contracted on this
account are declared to be void.
COCK-FIGHTING.
To cock-fighting they are still more passionately addicted, and it is
indulged to them under certain regulations. Where they are perfectly
independent their propensity to it is so great that it resembles rather a
serious occupation than a sport. You seldom meet a man travelling in the
country without a cock under his arm, and sometimes fifty persons in a
company when there is a bimbang in one of the neighbouring villages. A
country-man coming down, on any occasion, to the bazaar or settlement at
the mouth of the river, if he boasts the least degree of spirit must not
be unprovided with this token of it. They often game high at their
meetings; particularly when a superstitious faith in the invincibility of
their bird has been strengthened by past success. A hundred Spanish
dollars is no very uncommon risk, and instances have occurred of a
father's staking his children or wife, and a son his mother or sisters,
on the issue of a battle, when a run of ill luck has stripped them of
property and rendered them desperate. Quarrels, attended with dreadful
consequences, have often arisen on these occasions.
RULES OF COCKING.
By their customs there are four umpires appointed to determine on all
disputed points in the course of the battles; and from their decision
there lies no appeal except the Gothic appeal to the sword. A person who
loses and has not the ability to pay is immediately proscribed, departs
with disgrace, and is never again suffered to appear at the galangang.
This cannot with propriety be translated a cockpit, as it is generally a
spot on the level ground, or a stage erected, and covered in. It is
inclosed with a railing which keeps off the spectators; none but the
handlers and heelers being admitted withinside. A man who has a high
opinion of and regard for his cock will not fight him under a certain
number of dollars, which he places in order on the floor: his poorer
adversary is perhaps unable to deposit above one half: the standers-by
make up the sum, and receive their dividends in proportion if successful.
A father at his deathbed has been known to desire his son to take the
first opportunity of matching a certain cock for a sum equal to his whole
property, under a blind conviction of its being betuah, or invulnerable.
MATCHES.
Cocks of the same colour are never matched but a grey against a pile, a
yellow against a red, or the like. This might have been originally
designed to prevent disputes or knavish impositions. The Malay breed of
cocks is much esteemed by connoisseurs who have had an opportunity of
trying them. Great pains is taken in the rearing and feeding; they are
frequently handled and accustomed to spar in public, in order to prevent
any shyness. Contrary to our laws, the owner is allowed to take up and
handle his cock during the battle to clear his eye of a feather or his
mouth of blood. When a cock is killed, or runs, the other must have
sufficient spirit and vigour left to peck at him three times, on his
being held to him for that purpose, or it becomes a drawn battle; and
sometimes an experienced cocker will place the head of his vanquished
bird in such an uncouth posture as to terrify the other and render him
unable to give this proof of victory. The cocks are never trimmed, but
matched in full feather. The artificial spur used in Sumatra resembles in
shape the blade of a scimitar, and proves a more destructive weapon than
the European spur. It has no socket but is tied to the leg, and in the
position of it the nicety of the match is regulated. As in horse-racing
weight is proportioned to inches, so in cocking a bird of superior weight
and size is brought to an equality with his adversary by fixing the steel
spur so many scales of the leg above the natural spur, and thus obliging
him to fight with a degree of disadvantage. It rarely happens that both
cocks survive the combat.
In the northern parts of the island, where gold-dust is the common medium
of gambling, as well as of trade, so much is accidentally dropped in
weighing and delivering that at some cock-pits, where the resort of
people is great, the sweepings are said, probably with exaggeration, to
be worth upwards of a thousand dollars per annum to the owner of the
ground; beside his profit of two fanams (five pence) for each battle.
QUAIL-FIGHTING.
In some places they match quails, in the manner of cocks. These fight
with great inveteracy, and endeavour to seize each other by the tongue.
The Achinese bring also into combat the dial-bird (murei) which resembles
a small magpie, but has an agreeable though imperfect note. They
sometimes engage one another on the wing, and drop to the ground in the
struggle.
FENCING.
They have other diversions of a more innocent nature. Matches of fencing,
or a species of tournament, are exhibited on particular days; as at the
breaking up of their annual fast, or month of ramadan, called there the
puasa. On these occasions they practise strange attitudes, with violent
contortions of the body, and often work themselves up to a degree of
frenzy, when the old men step in and carry them off. These exercises in
some circumstances resemble the idea which the ancients have given us of
the pyrrhic or war dance; the combatants moving at a distance from each
other in cadence, and making many turns and springs unnecessary in the
representation of a real combat. This entertainment is more common among
the Malays than in the country. The chief weapons of offence used by
these people are the kujur or lance and the kris. This last is properly
Malayan, but in all parts of the island they have a weapon equivalent,
though in general less curious in its structure, wanting that waving in
the blade for which the kris is remarkable, and approaching nearer to
daggers or knives.
Among their exercises we never observe jumping or running. They smile at
the Europeans, who in their excursions take so many unnecessary leaps.
The custom of going barefoot may be a principal impediment to this
practice in a country overrun with thorny shrubs, and where no fences
occur to render it a matter of expediency.
DIVERSION OF TOSSING A BALL.
They have a diversion similar to that described by Homer as practised
among the Phaeacians, which consists in tossing an elastic wicker ball or
round basket of split rattans into the air, and from one player to
another, in a peculiar manner. This game is called by the Malays sipak
raga, or, in the dialect of Bencoolen, chipak rago, and is played by a
large party standing in an extended circle, who endeavour to keep up the
ball by striking it either perpendicularly, in order to receive it again,
or obliquely to some other person of the company, with the foot or the
hand, the heel or the toe, the knee, the shoulder, the head, or with any
other part of the body; the merit appearing to consist in producing the
effect in the least obvious or most whimsical manner; and in this sport
many of them attain an extraordinary degree of expertness. Among the
plates of Lord Macartney's Embassy will be found the representation of a
similar game, as practised by the natives of Cochinchina.
SMOKING OF OPIUM.
The Sumatrans, and more particularly the Malays, are much attached, in
common with many other eastern people, to the custom of smoking opium.
The poppy which produces it not growing on the island, it is annually
imported from Bengal in considerable quantities, in chests containing a
hundred and forty pounds each. It is made up in cakes of five or six
pounds weight, and packed with dried leaves; in which situation it will
continue good and vendible for two years, but after that period grows
hard and diminishes considerably in value. It is of a darker colour, and
is supposed to have less strength than the Turkey opium. About a hundred
and fifty chests are consumed annually on the west coast of Sumatra,
where it is purchased, on an average, at three hundred dollars the chest,
and sold again in smaller quantities at five or six. But on occasions of
extraordinary scarcity I have known it to sell for its weight in silver,
and a single chest to fetch upwards of three thousand dollars.
PREPARATION.
The method of preparing it for use is as follows. The raw opium is first
boiled or seethed in a copper vessel; then strained through a cloth to
free it from impurities; and then a second time boiled. The leaf of the
tambaku, shred fine, is mixed with it, in a quantity sufficient to absorb
the whole; and it is afterwards made up into small pills, about the size
of a pea, for smoking. One of these being put into the small tube that
projects from the side of the opium pipe, that tube is applied to a lamp,
and the pill being lighted is consumed at one whiff or inflation of the
lungs, attended with a whistling noise. The smoke is never emitted by the
mouth, but usually receives vent through the nostrils, and sometimes, by
adepts, through the passage of the ears and eyes. This preparation of the
opium is called maddat, and is often adulterated in the process by mixing
jaggri, or pine sugar, with it; as is the raw opium, by incorporating
with it the fruit of the pisang or plantain.
EFFECTS OF OPIUM.
The use of opium among these people, as that of intoxicating liquors
among other nations, is a species of luxury which all ranks adopt
according to their ability, and which, when once become habitual, it is
almost impossible to shake off. Being however like other luxuries
expensive, few only among the lower or middling class of people can
compass the regular enjoyment of it, even where its use is not
restrained, as it is among the pepper-planters, to the times of their
festivals. That the practice of smoking opium must be in some degree
prejudicial to the health is highly probable; yet I am inclined to think
that effects have been attributed to it much more pernicious to the
constitution than it in reality causes. The bugis soldiers and others in
the Malay bazaars whom we see most attached to it, and who use it to
excess, commonly appear emaciated; but they are in other respects
abandoned and debauched. The Limun and Batang Assei gold-traders, on the
contrary, who are an active, laborious class of men but yet indulge as
freely in opium as any others whatever, are notwithstanding the most
healthy and vigorous people to be met with on the island. It has been
usual also to attribute to the practice destructive consequences of
another nature from the frenzy it has been supposed to excite in those
who take it in quantities. But this should probably rank with the many
errors that mankind have been led into by travellers addicted to the
marvellous; and there is every reason to believe that the furious
quarrels, desperate assassinations, and sanguinary attacks, which the use
of opium is said to give birth to, are idle notions, originally adopted
through ignorance and since maintained from the mere want of
investigation, without having any solid foundation. It is not to be
controverted, that those desperate acts of indiscriminate murder, called
by us mucks, and by the natives mengamok, do actually take place, and
frequently too in some parts of the East (in Java in particular) but it
is not equally evident that they proceed from any intoxication except
that of their unruly passions. Too often they are occasioned by excess of
cruelty and injustice in their oppressors. On the west coast of Sumatra
about twenty thousand pounds weight of this drug are consumed annually,
yet instances of this crime do not happen (at least within the scope of
our knowledge) above once in two or three years. During my residence
there I had an opportunity of being an eyewitness but to one muck. The
slave of a Portuguese woman, a man of the island of Nias, who in all
probability had never handled an opium pipe in his life, being treated by
his mistress with extreme severity for a trifling offence, vowed he would
have revenge if she attempted to strike him again, and ran down the steps
of the house with a knife in each hand, as it is said. She cried out,
mengamok! The civil guard was called, who, having the power in these
cases of exercising summary justice, fired half a dozen rounds into an
outhouse where the unfortunate wretch had sheltered himself on their
approach, and from whence he was at length dragged, covered with wounds.
Many other mucks might perhaps be found, upon scrutiny, of the nature of
the foregoing, where a man of strong feelings was driven by excess of
injury to domestic rebellion.
It is true that the Malays, when in a state of war they are bent on any
daring enterprise, fortify themselves with a few whiffs of opium to
render them insensible to danger, as the people of another nation are
said to take a dram for the same purpose; but it must be observed that
the resolution for the act precedes, and is not the effect of, the
intoxication. They take the same precaution previous to being led to
public execution; but on these occasions show greater signs of stupidity
than frenzy. Upon the whole it may be reasonably concluded that the
sanguinary achievements, for which the Malays have been famous, or
infamous rather, in history, are more justly to be attributed to the
natural ferocity of their disposition, or to the influence upon their
manners of a particular state of society, than to the qualities of any
drug whatever. The pretext of the soldiers of the country-guard for using
opium is that it may render them watchful on their nightly posts: we on
the contrary administer it to procure sleep, and according to the
quantity it has either effect. The delirium it produces is known to be so
very pleasing that Pope has supposed this to have been designed by Homer
when he describes the delicious draught prepared by Helen, called
nepenthe, which exhilarated the spirits and banished from the mind the
recollection of woe.
It is remarkable that at Batavia, where the assassins just now described,
when taken alive, are broken on the wheel, with every aggravation of
punishment that the most rigorous justice can inflict, the mucks yet
happen in great frequency, whilst at Bencoolen, where they are executed
in the most simple and expeditious manner, the offence is extremely rare.
Excesses of severity in punishment may deter men from deliberate and
interested acts of villainy, but they add fuel to the atrocious
enthusiasm of desperadoes.
PIRATICAL ADVENTURES.
A further proof of the influence that mild government has upon the
manners of people is that the piratical adventures so common on the
eastern coast of the island are unknown on the western. Far from our
having apprehensions of the Malays, the guards at the smaller English
settlements are almost entirely composed of them, with a mixture of Bugis
or Makasar people. Europeans, attended by Malays only, are continually
travelling through the country. They are the only persons employed in
carrying treasure to distant places; in the capacity of secretaries for
the country correspondence; as civil officers in seizing delinquents
among the planters and elsewhere; and as masters and supercargoes of the
tambangans, praws, and other small coasting vessels. So great is the
effect of moral causes and habit upon a physical character esteemed the
most treacherous and sanguinary.