A Naning Recital.
by
J. L. Humphreys.
Malayan Civil Service.
When stationed at Alor Gajah in 1908, I heard an old Malay, named Ungkai Lisut, recite at a wedding-feast a pleasant speech of Menangkabau eustomary sayings. He afterwards repeated the recital for ny benefit (it was printed, with a translation, in Number 72 of this Journal), and some time later gave me the tattered manuscript of a longer and 'deeper' speech—the text now published. The restoration of the manuscript has been a difficult task: Ungkai Lisut's memory of the sayings proved, in fact, more accurate than his document; and the present version contains several passages that came back to his mind (after a special discipline of prayer and fasting) during a visit he paid me at Singapore in the year 1914.
An explanation of all the references in the recital would fill a small volume, but a few words will make it intelligible.
Naning, now included in the Settlement of Malacca, was formerly one of the Nine States—the original Negri Sembilan—founded by Sumatran immigrants, who crossed the Straits of Malacca in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and brought with them the Menangkabau Custom (Adat Menangkabau) of exogamous tribes, descent of property through females, and mild criminal procedure of compromise and reparation. Naning came under Portuguese influence, and afterwards (by treaty made in 1643) paid nominal tribute to the Dutch conquerors of Malacca; but remained in effect an autonomous and semi-democratic State, with a constitution of Chief (the Dato' Nauring), Heads of Tribes, and Elders of Clans,
After the East India Company had replaced the Dutch, attempts to levy a full tribute led to the Naning War of 1831-1832: Dol Said, the Dato' Naming, made a stubborn resistance to the Indian troops, but finally succumbed; the tribal constitution was abolished (even the use of 'the terms Dattoo and Sookoo' was forbidden); and Naning became a Malacca 'District', divided into Mukims under territorial Penghulus.
In spite of political annihilation and the steady pressure of Colonial Courts and Law, the tribal Custom still survives with remarkable vitality in all matters affecting property, marriage and inheritance. The survival is due partly to the neighbourhood of Rembau, where the fuller Adat still survives; but it must also be
