meee L AW RELATING TO SLAVERY 
ave NG ek. MALAY S. 
[Among the papers which were printed and laid before Parliament in 
1882 on the subject of Slavery in the Protected Native States was a minute by 
Mr. W. E. MaxweELt, then Assistant Resident, Perak, in which the existing 
system was described, an emancipation scheme was proposed, and a translation 
of the Malay law relating to Slavery was promised. Mr. MAaxweELt having now 
presented to the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society his extracts from 
the Perak, Pahang and Johor Code, transliterated and translated, these are 
here printed for the first time, and are fitly prefaced by the official minute above 
referred to. (See Parliamentary Papers, C.—3429, p- 16.) That portion of it 
which deals with the emancipation scheme is omitted, the liberation of slaves 
and debtors in Perak having long since been effected. The native law, though no 
longer in force in the southern portion of the Peninsula, is probably not dis- 
similar to that which is still carried out in some of the islands of the Eastern 
Archipelago, more or less remote from European influence and authority. ] 
BD, 
European influence, is a national custom which they 
“jy have in common with other Indo-Chinese races, 
) ABS and it is a mistake to suppose that it is the offspring 
£2\, of Muhammadan law and religion, the introduction 
of which among the Malays is of comparatively 
modern date. 
Muhammadan law has, however, largely influenced Malay 
custom respecting slavery, and Arabic terminology is notice- 
able in many of the details incidental to the system. So far 
from being identical with the slavery lawful amoug Muslims 
in Egypt, Arabia, etc., the Malay institution is, in some respect, 
completely at variance with it, and in this particular, as in 
many others, there is a never-ending struggle between the hu- 
kum ‘adat, the “ customary law ” of the Malays, and the hukum 
shar‘a or “ religious law’ of the Koran. Muhammadan priests, 
nee HE institution of slavery as it exists among the Ma- 
&“zey lays, in places where it has not been abolished by 
