3IALAY PROVERBS. 45 



The unhappy man who owns two or move households 

 and has to listen in each to the upbraidings and reproaches 

 of the rival ladies must have, say the Malays, " a heart of 

 stone and the ears of a. jar," berliaiikan bain berielingakcm 

 tern pay an. 



A woman who is one of several wives of one husband is 

 said 



Minum chukapagi harl. (No. 183. 



u To drink vinegar in the morning'," an allusion probably 

 to the bad temper in which she goes to the day's duties. 



The phemomenon of a hen-pecked husband, which a 

 Mohamedan country might hardly be thought to afford, is hit 

 off in a very neat and concise proverb, Kamudi cleri Jialuwan, 

 " Steered from the bow" (No. 141). It is by no means rare 

 to find Malay wives possessed of quite sufficient energy and 

 spirit to take command in the house. 



Marriage does not exhaust all the proverbs on the subject 

 of women. Feminine nature in the abstract is attacked in 

 an uncomplimentary one, Kevbau sa'kawan lain di handling 

 manusia saorang tiada terkawal, "A herd of buffaloes maybe 

 guarded, but not so one human being ! (No. 148- . 



But this is nothing compared with a damnatory sentence 

 in the Menangkabau Code which figuratively describes a 

 woman as ifiu Iblis saudara segala Sneitan " the mother of 

 Satan and the sister of all the devils." 



Of historical proverbs, which commemorate real events and 

 incidents, a few specimens are given in the preceding 

 collection. Two, which relate to the Dutch, ought not to 

 have escaped the attention of Mr. lOinkert, who, as far as 

 I know, was the first parsemiographer who occupied himself 

 with Malay proverbs — Pelabor habis Palembang ta'tda/t, 

 " The supplies were all finished but Palembang did not fall." 

 It is a punning allusion to an unsuccessful siege (see No. 116) 

 in former days, and still tells with all its original force when 

 some expensive project, barren of result, is under discussion. 

 What the Hollanders did in Perak to merit being handed 

 down to posterity in a proverb directed against those who, 

 like Oliver Twist, ask for " more " has not been preserved in 

 local tradition. But Aika-laffi-lagiseperti blanda v.iinta tanah y 

 "Everlastingly more, more, like Dutchmen asking for land" 

 (No. 205), is a phrase with which Perak women will long 



