106 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums. [Vox. Ix, 
the tribe,” may indeed accept that candidate, may accept 
very rarely and for peculiar reasons a candidate from the 
same pérut as the outgoing chief, but they have the power to 
designate any other candidate who has better claims of family 
or intelligence: 
Di-dalam bénar di-lalukan, 
Di-luar bénar di-surutkan. 
Should the outgoing chief refuse to accept their decision 
the election is referred in Minangkabau to the collective chiefs 
of tribes in the n&géri. 
*Kok sa-muafakat, kita lalukan ; 
"Kok bélum sa-muafakat, 
Kusut kita perstlésaikan, 
Kéroh kita jérnehkan. 
If they find there is after all unanimity, they pass the 
candidate ; if there is not, they adjust the tangled interests 
and clear up turbid counsels. Against their decision, there 
is no appeal. The procedure in Negri Sembilan is similar. 
Sometimes a /émbaga will claim that he and his colleagues in 
council alone can decide on a candidate. More often a 
territorial chief, undang or pénghulu, will claim that he alone 
can choose and reject. Both sides quote Minangkabau 
scripture to their own purpose but the true procedure lies 
mid-way. The decision in disputed elections rests with the 
pénghulu or undang in council. The territorial chief is the 
mouthpiece of his council, as witness the saying that deals 
with his power of dismissing a tribal chief :— 
Sah batal ka-pada lémbaga 
Hidup mati ka-poda undang. 
“‘ The finding rests with the council of tribal chiefs, but 
the sentence is pronounced by the territorial chief.” If 
council, that shows how the Minangkabau constitution failed 
to solve the problem of the strong and assertive man. 
Biassed arbitrary irregular decision on the part of a chief led 
to deadlock or war. Safeguards, it is true, have been 
invented with the process of time. The people of Muar have 
often appealed against the decision of their pénghulu to the 
undang Johol; and they have even appealed against the 
tuling of the undaung to the Yamtuan. But such safeguards 
do not exist now in Rembau or Jelebu. The creation of the 
office of Yamtuan Muda in those two states show that the 
need was felt. Those high offices have been abolished and 
the British Government ‘‘ crowned” instead. ‘That govern- 
ment, having an administrative machinery of its own, can 
afford to leave the post of a tribal chief vacant for an indefi- 
nite time, till the electorate is bulat, ‘‘ unanimous,” can in 
fact punish the constitution with its own ridiculously 
