OF KELANTAN 141 



ever, for if rain prevented trips in the Malay Pe- 

 ninsula, there would not be much travelling. 

 Another curious superstition I came across at the 

 very edge of the jungle warns a talking visitor 

 from leaning against the steps of a dwelling lest 

 a funeral come to that house. 



Of the Malay social life much of good could 

 be said ; it is enough here to say that there are no 

 old maids in the Malay Peninsula and fewer public 

 women proportionately than, I dare say, in any 

 other country in the world. The Malay is allowed 

 four wives, but he is too wise to take the limit 

 simultaneously or to be on with the new before he 

 is off with the old ; and though he may divorce and 

 replace without very much difficulty, the women 

 also have privileges, which, in the better classes, 

 means settlements, division of property and the 

 children provided for by law. Families are small. 

 The girls marry young, and marriage in the Pe- 

 ninsula apparently is a success, for little is heard 

 of drunken husbands or mischief -making women. 

 It is true that the Malay is sometimes a law unto 

 himself, that when he wants a thing it is difficult 

 for him, in the jungle, to recognize other tenets 

 than the one that might makes right; yet he is 

 amenable at the last. The present peaceful, pros- 

 perous and happy condition of the Malay Penin- 

 sula, which in 1873 was astir with rebellion, is 



