108 MALAY LAND TENURE. 



tenure of his land, what is the mode of enforcing obedience, 

 and what is the penalty for contumacy. With the excep- 

 tion of the extract at the head of the preceding chapter, I 

 have met with no passage in Malay laws which affects these 

 questions ; there is no written definition of the nature and 

 extent of the services which a Raja or Chief or superior pro- 

 prietor can exact from the cultivator. In a Malay State, the 

 exaction of personal service from the ra'iyat is limited only by 

 the powers of endurance of the latter. The superior autho- 

 rity is obliged, from self-interest, to stop short of the point 

 at which oppression will compel the cultivator to abandon 

 his land and emigrate. But within this limit, the cultivator 

 may be required to give his labour in making roads, bridges, 

 drains, and other works of public utility, to tend elephants, 

 to pole boats, to carry letters and messages, to attend his 

 Chief when travelling, to cultivate his Chief's fields as well 

 as his own, and to serve as a soldier when required."* Local 

 custom often regulates the kind of service exacted from the 



# Raffles, writing to Lord Minto in 1811 on the disadvantages of allow- 

 ing Siamese inliuence to preponderate in Kedah, thus describes the status of 

 the Siamese peasant: — " Both persons and property are at the command of 

 " the King, and, of course, at the command of his Officers in recession from 

 " the lowest to the highest ; hence no man will rear what he cannot call his 

 " own. Certain months are allowed the many to plant and reap their paddy: 

 " and this when stored is sacred and cannot be taken from their possession ; 

 " with this exception all the rest of their time, exertions, or acquirements 

 " may be taken by the King or his Officers if so inclined." Life of Raffles, 

 p. 52. 



The Eurman seems to be little better off : — 



" Corvees and enforced duties of all kinds are frequent, and the men 

 " selected for such seivice can only get off by furnishing a substitute or 

 •' bribing the tithing-man. The King or some great man wants to build 

 " a pagoda, and orders are sent round to the vaiious circles that they must 

 "furnish a regular supply of workers daily. The taik or myo-tJtoo-gyee 

 " draws up a roster, and each man has to go to work for a certain number 

 " of days. If he fail to go, he is tied up to a post or a tree and gets a 

 " sound flog<_ing. Similar forced duties are the protection of the frontier 

 " and the pursuit of daccits. Such work is particularly detested, for the 

 " men have to keep themselves supplied with food, or get their friends to 

 " b;ing it to them, and this is not always an easy matter. Besides, such 

 " service may last an indefinite time." The Bvrman, his Life and Notions, 

 1882. IT, 262. 



