MALAY LAND TENURE. 81 



Chapter II. 

 HUMA OR LADANG CULTIVATION. 



The most primitive form of cultivation known to the Malays, 

 and one that is practised by numerous Indo-Chinese tribes, is 

 the hill-farm system. '" 



The Malay peasant who does not possess a saicah, or wet 

 padi field, or who, possessing one, is unable, from want of 

 buffaloes or some other cause, to work it, selects a piece of 

 forest land on the side of a hill and proceeds to clear it by 

 first cutting down ( tebas ) the under- wood and then felling 

 ( tebang) the forest trees. 



Work is commenced about March or April, and when the 

 fallen timber is dry it is set on fire; if this is skilfully done 

 and advantage taken of wind, the whole is rapidly consumed, 

 leaving a clear surface for agricultural operations. Charred 

 stumps stick up in all directions on the clearing, and some of 

 the lighter timber is turned to account in making a rough 

 fence round the cultivated patch. Hill-padi (padi huma ) is 

 then sown by dropping a few seeds into holes made at short 

 intervals with a pointed stick. Many Malays prefer the ladang 

 system, as it is called, to the wet cultivation on the pLiins, for 

 one reason, namely, the variety of different edible vegetables 

 which a ladang will produce. Besides the hill-padi, he can 

 grow on his farm bananas, Indian- corn, pumpkins and gourds, 

 sugar-cane, chillies, &c.,- &c. Sometimes the same piece of 

 land is cultivated in this manner two years running, but 

 usually new r land is taken up every year. 



The* Sakai and other aboriginal tribes who inhabit the inte- 

 rior of the Peninsula, also practise this system of hill-cultiva- 

 tion, and their clearings may be seen on the sides of the more 

 distant mountains far removed from the districts inhabited by 

 the Malays. Lcgan observed this among the wild tribes in the 

 South of the Peninsula, and has described their mode of clear- 

 ing and planting their ladang. | 



* " The custom of ' Chena ' farms is of extreme antiquity in Ceylon. 

 "It is alluded to in the Mahawanso, B. C. 161, eh. xxiii, p. 140."— Ten- 

 cent's Ceylon, II, 463. 



f Journ. Ind. Arch., I, 455. 



