MALAY LAW IN NEGRI SEMBILAN. 395 
in the country, the Muhammadan tribe of Beduanda took up the 
sale of wastelands and made considerable profit by it, and du- 
ring the last twenty years, the Beduanda chiefs have sold waste 
lands of, say, three or four acres in extent for eight and ten 
dollars and sometimes more. 
As this custom was against Muhammadan law it was easy for 
the Government to put a stop to an usage which caused many 
disputes, trouble and even bloodshed in the country. 
In my article printed in this Journal, 1889, I have given the . 
dry facts in connection with origin and constitution. The 
tribes are governed by the “ Adat Perpateh” and by the cus- 
toms derived from the aborigines. With the Raja family this 
is not the case, and the ‘ Adat Temenggong’’ governs proper- 
ty and inheritance. 
In order to explain by practical instances the entire con- 
stitution, I will now give a number of political and customary 
cases which have occurred to my knowledge as these may be 
useful in understanding a somewhat elaborate constitution and 
code of laws. I must remark at the same time that in quoting 
past cases I do not wish in any way to criticize what was done 
in the past, when it was absolutely impossible to make head 
or tail of the intricate laws of these States and when we had 
the very smallest experience in the Malay Peninsula. 
First of all, | would refer to the case of the Yam Tuan 
Mudaship of Rembau. An Arab Syed (Saban) from Malacca 
married a daughter of the Yam Tuan Muda Raja Ali of Rem- 
bau. He learnt something of the tribal laws of Rembau and 
what to him was the great thing the law of female inheritance. 
He advised his father-in-law to abdicate in his favour. At this 
the Penghulu and Lembagas of Rembau were furious, refusing 
to have a Syed as Yam Tuan Muda. ‘They applied for assist- 
ance from the Yam Tuan of Sri Menanti and together they 
drove the Syed and the other Raja out of the country. After 
this the British Government quite rightly arranged with the 
Rembau Chiefs that Tampin should be settled on the Raja 
family of Rembau, Rembau refusing to accept a Yam Tuan 
Muda for the future. Syed Saban took possession of Tampin. 
Now in this case the Syed was all wrong. He learnt a little 
