MALAY LAW IN NEGRI SEMBILAN. 315 
be paid to them by the Chinese miner, the difficulty was over- 
come and every one became contented. The late Yam Tuan 
of Sri Menanti, in order to make a last attempt at quieting a 
very turbulent and powerful Waris faction in Ulu Muar, had 
married a lady of this family. This unfortunately did not 
improve matters, as although this faction became friendly with 
the Raja it started terrible struggles with all the other Waris 
and even with the tribes and being allied to the Raja became 
more formidable to the peace of the country than hitherto. 
Land cases are not very frequent here as land is so well de- 
fined by custom. At the same time there have been a number 
of cases which dated from previous years and had never been 
settled. Directly a case was brought up again faction fights 
- occurred and then the case was again left unsettled. A very 
old case at Ampang Serong, about five miles from Kwala Pilah, 
required immediate settlement. It was as between the tribe 
-of Beduanda Waris and the tribe of ‘Tiga Batu.’ The Waris 
first claimed that they had never sold the land and that it had 
been appropriated by the Tiga Batu tribe. This, however, they 
failed to prove, as it was ruled that they could not claim pur- 
chase money after upwards of one hundred years of occupa- 
tion. Then they claimed proprietorship of a great portion 
saying that the Tiga Batu tribe had encroached. The Tiga 
Batu tribe on the other hand said that the land had been 
mortgaged to the Waris for fifty dollars ($50). The whole 
case was investigated on the spot. It was perfectly evident 
that the Waris’ claim was incorrect. They claimed the paddy 
land and had forgotten to consider the hill land on the side of 
the valley where the houses and gardens are. Taking the hill 
land in the occupation of the tribe, it was evident that in ac- 
cordance with the ancient usage of selling land in straight 
strips across a valley or across it up to the main stream the 
land claimed actually did belong to the tribe of Tiga Batu 
though in consequence of the mortgage of the paddy field to 
the tribe of Waris it had been for years cultivated by the Waris 
holder of the mortgage. It was ordered that the amount of 
the mortgage should be paid to the Waris tribe and that the 
land should remain in the possession of the tribe of Tiga Batu. 
