MALAY LAND TENURE. 113 



" Were the requisitions made for the public service alone, 

 " it would still be comparatively nothing, it being admitted 

 " that the State has a right to the labour of its subjects, but 

 (c the Regents, their relations, their Patehs, and the subordi- 

 " nate Chiefs of every description, assume the right of disposing 

 " of the services of the common people as they think proper, 

 "and themselves employ many of them in menial labour of all 

 " descriptions, from which it arises that the number of people 

 " employed away from their houses on what is called public 

 " services is almost incredible." 



Forced labour is naturally hated by Malays and is evaded as 

 much as possible. Travelling in the interior of Kedah, I have 

 seen the Malay peasant running from his fields into the jungle 

 at the sight of the Raja's elephants, lest he sould be called 

 upon to form one of the train. In Perak, the establishment of 

 British influence has led to a general " strike " on the part 

 of the peasantry against the system to which they formerly 

 submitted peacefully. A Malay Raja in Perak, who in 1876 

 was able to supply me with the men of two or three villages 

 in order to convey the baggage and stores of a detachment of 

 troops from Blanja to Kinta, now finds it difficult to procure 

 men to pole his own boat without paying them. Men required 

 to perform work for the Government of the State, as at present 

 constituted, are scrupulously paid, or provided with ample 

 rations. Tn Malacca, the corvee system has never been exer- 

 cised under British rule, though it is, no doubt, an incident of 

 native tenure, and, unless surrendered by Government for a 

 money equivalent, might very reasonably be exacted for such 

 purely local objects as repairing the dams and other native 

 irrigation works which are necessary for the successful cultiva- 

 tion of the fields of a village or district,* building a balei 



* Compulsory labour was formerly an institution in Ceylon also : — " Another 

 " institution to the influence and operation of which the country was indebted 

 " for the construction of the works which diffused plenty throughout every 

 '' region, was the system of Raja-kariya, by which the King had a right to 

 «' employ, for public purposes, the compulsory labour of the inhabitants. To 

 i< what extent this was capable of exaction, or under what safeguards it was 

 '' enforced in early times, does not appear from the historical books. But on 

 " all occasions when tanks were to be formed or canals cut for irrigation, the 

 " Mahawanso alludes almost in words of course — to the application of Raja- 

 " kariya for their construction, the people being summoned to the task by 

 " beat of drum." Tennent's Ceylon, I, 427, 



