36 THE NEGRI SEMBILAN. 
was the Chief or oldest and which will be referred to later 
as the development of the constitution is dealt with. 
It would now appear that these Chiefs assigned various 
districts either to their relations or to the lesser’ 
Origin ofthe Chiefs who had accompanied, them. The lesser 
eos sémbi- Chiefs again separated to Ndning,* Rémbau, 
; Jéleit (Pahang), Ségdmat, and Pasir Bésar. 
These completed the nine States of the NégriSémbilan. This 
fact is generally known, though considerable incredulity has 
always been expressed with regard to Jélei in Pahang, detach- 
ed as it is from the remaining eight States. 
Thus these Saez were established in the nine States, and 
ee their power and numbers appear to have been 
ae ofthe considerable. A fact that has much struck me 
both here and in Pérak and Séldngor is the 
pronunciation of the final & by Sékez when talking Malay. 
This pronunciation is not within the memory of Malays in the 
Peninsula, and it is quite possible that this great number of 
Saket who arrived from Sktudei, came originally from Bor- 
neo, { and made Sktdei their Jast halting place before travel- 
ling on to Johol and separating throughout the Peninsula. 
The next chapter in this history, unconnected as it is by 
dates, is the arrival of Mahomedan settlers from 
Arrival of Ménangkdbau in Sumatra. There must have 
Mahomedan = been very free immigration, and that within a 
settlers from P : 
Sumatra. short period, and the policy pursued by these 
settlers was one of conciliation with the abori- 
gines, and not as in Pérak and Selangor, where the Sakez 
were driven back into the mountains, and their wives and 
children caught and enslaved by the Mahomedan settlers on 
* A stinging insect of the bee kind. 
+ Name of a creeper. 
¢ Primary origin in Java. 
DEAE 
