136 MANNERS OF THE 



ceeds quietly and orderly during the voyage. The 

 most experienced persons, under the captain, are 

 the juro-batu, or pilot, and the juro-mudi, or steers- 

 man; these act in the capacity of officers of the 

 prauh. As the Malays are never in a hurry, they 

 remain at one place as long as any trade can be 

 carried on, when they either sail to another port, or 

 return home as circumstances seem to render most 

 profitable. The nakodahs sometimes have wives at 

 each of the different places they are in the habit of 

 visiting annually, so that wherever they go they have 

 a home for their reception. Their taste for the 

 pursuits of trade is quite a passion, and during all 

 their early life they look steadily and anxiously 

 forward to the time when they shall be able to indulge 

 it with profit to themselves. It is from this principle 

 being so rooted in their natures, that the kings and 

 princes have been found, in all periods of their 

 history, to be the greatest merchants in their state ; 

 and a tomb a little below the town of Bruni is that 

 of one of the most powerful sultans who governed 

 the kingdom in its flourishing times, and who is 

 called by the natives by no other name than that of 

 nakodah Ragam, or captain merchant Ragam. 



The people of Sarawak, and the west coast generally, 

 possess none of the disgusting and cringing servility 

 of the natives of continental India ; but their 

 manners are distinguished for their politeness and 

 freedom. The peasantry of Europe would lose much 

 by comparison on this head with the poorest of the 



