40 BRITISH BORNEO. 
the latter more especially, but of course a visit to Mecca does 
not necessarily imply that the pilgrim has obtained any actual 
knowledge of the holy book, which some of them can decipher, 
the Malays having adopted the Arabic alphabet, but without, 
however, understanding the meaning of the Arabic words of 
which it consists. A friend of mine, son of the principal 
exponent of Mahomedan law in the capital, and who became 
naturalised as a British subject, had studied law in Constan- 
tinople. 
There is no gaol in Brunai, and fines are found to be a more 
profitable mode of. punishment than incarceration, the judge 
generally pocketing the fine, and when it does become neces- 
sary to keep an offender in detention, it is done by placing 
his feet in the stocks, which are set up on the public staging 
or landing before the reception room of the Sultan, or of one 
of his chief Ministers, and the wretched man may be kept 
there for months. 
The punishment for theft, sanctioned by the Koran, is by 
cutting off the right hand, but this barbarous, though effective, 
penalty has been discountenanced by the English. On one 
occasion, however, when acting as H. B. M. Consul-General, 
I received my information too late to interfere. I had been 
on a visit to the late Sultan in a British gunboat, and anchored 
off the palace. During the evening, just before dinner, not- 
withstanding the watch kept on deck, some natives came 
alongside and managed to hook out through the ports my 
gold watch and chain from off the Captain’s table, and the 
first Lieutenant’s revolver from his cabin. During our inter- 
view next morning with the Sultan, I twitted him on the skill 
and daring of Brunai thieves, who could perpetrate a theft 
from a friendly war-ship before the windows of the Royal 
palace. The Sultan said nothing, but was evidently much 
annoyed, anda few weeks afterwards the revolver and the 
remains of my watch and chain were sent to me at Labuan, 
with a letter saying that three thieves had been punished by 
having had their hands chopped off. I subsequently heard 
that two of the unfortunate men had died from the effects of 
this cruel punishment. 
