FOLK-LORE AND THE MENANGKABAU CODE IN THE NEGRI SEMBILAN.
BY A. HALE, District Officer, Tampin.
The Negri Sembilan, unlike the other Protected States of the Malay Peninsula, has not yet quite got away from the traditions. which prevailed amongst the Aboriginal tribes; these traditions were partly adopted and somewhat modified by the colonists from other States of the Peninsula and from Sumatra; who, as the Resident, the Hon. Martin Lister, has pointed out in a paper communicated to the Society in 1887, "fell in with the Aboriginal views, and observed their rights to all waste lands, and their power in each State" but at the same time "brought their tribal laws with them."
It is well known that the primitive Malays of Sumatra practised exogamy, and—like all other exogametic races inter-tribal marriage was one of the most heavily punished offences.
When I went to the District of Kinta, Perak, in 1884, and was engaged in settling native Malay claims to mining lands, it puzzled me at first to understand the term "Waris Kinta," which was often quoted by native mine owners, and when I was transferred to an appointment in the Negri Sembilan, I remember that the late Sir Frederick Weld told me that one of the chief reasons why he had selected me, was, because there were few men in the service who could distinguish between a Waris and a Lembaga. I am afraid I looked confused, and I know that as soon as I got back to my Hotel, I looked in my "Swettenham"” and found that the word Lembaga meant somebody who had something to do in the affairs of the State. I had not lived long in Tampin, and mixed in Rembow and Gemencheh affairs before the distinction was made quite clear to me.
