BRITISH BORNEO. 39 
chose to settle, and have endeavoured to pose as sem1-inde- 
pendent princes. These feudal chiefs tax, or used to tax, 
their followers in proportion to their inability to resist their 
lords’ demands. A poll tax, usually at the rate of $2 for 
married men and $1 for bachelors, is a form of taxation to 
which, in the absence of any land tax, no objection is made, 
but the chiefs had also the power of levying special taxes at 
their own sweet will, when they found their expenditure in 
excess of their income, and advantage was taken of any delay 
in payment of taxes, or of any breach of the peace, or act of 
theft occurring in a district, to impose excessive fines on the 
delinquents, all of which if paid went to the chief; and if the 
fine could not be paid, the defaulter’s children might be seized 
and eventually sold into slavery. The system of “forced 
trade’ I have alluded to when speaking on the subject of 
domestic slavery. The chiefs were all absentees and, while 
drawing everything they could out of their districts, did 
nothing for their wretched followers. The taxes were collect- 
ed by their messengers and slaves, unscrupulous men who 
were paid by what they could get out of the people in excess 
cf what they were bidden to demand, and who, while engaged 
in levying the contributions, lived at free quarters on the peo- 
ple, who naturally did their best to expedite their departure. 
Petty cases of dispute were settled by headmen appointed 
by the chief and termed orang kaya, literally ‘rich men.” 
These orang kayas were often selected from their possessing 
some little property and being at the same time subservient 
to the chief. In many cases, it seemed to me, that they were 
chosen for their superior stupidity and pliability. I have 
made use of the past tense throughout my description of these 
feudal chiefs as, happily, for reasons already given, the ‘‘ good 
old times”’ are rapidly passing away. 
The laws of Brunai are, in theory, those inculcated by the 
isoran and there are one or two officials who have some slight 
knowledge of Mahomedan law. Owing to the cheap facilities 
offered by the numerous steamers at Singapore, there are 
many Hajis—that is, persons who have made the pilgrimage 
to Mecca—amongst the Brunais and the Kadaaans, amongst 
