121 MALAY LAND TENURE. 



then the payment of the money at some later time would, in 

 most cases, be sufficient to enable the conditional vendor to 

 regain his land from a stranger nnder purely native rule. If 

 no term is fixed, the money may be paid at any time, but 

 until it is paid, the conditional vendee is entitled to retain 

 possession of the land and to cultivate it, or let it, at his 

 pleasure. A short docnment is generally drawn up in evidence 

 of the transaction, but these are often so loosely or informally 

 worded that the proof of the existence of the condition rests 

 principally upon the good faith of the parties. Sometimes 

 there is no written agreement at all. 



Transactions of this nature necessarily led to the investiga- 

 tions of many disputed claims when the rights of the native 

 land-holders in Krian were being settled (see supra, p. 121 ). 

 The rise in the value of land occasioned by the establishment 

 of British rule resulted in a general rush for possession, men 

 who had long since sold their fields by pulang belanja coming 

 forward to declare that the sale was merely conditional, while 

 in other instances conditional vendees in possession were equal- 

 ly ready to declare that the transaction which gave them their 

 right was jual putus, an absolute sale, not jual janji, a condi- 

 tional one. 



The native laws contain some curious provisions on the sub- 

 ject of hypothecation, a specimen of which relating to real 

 property may be consulted in the Appendix, p. xv. In all, 

 the peculiar principle of the Malay mortgage, namely, the 

 handing over to the creditor of the property on which the 

 money is advanced, is fully recognised. 



Chapter VIII. 



INHERITANCE. 



Among the Malays, the distribution of the property of 

 deceased persons is governed either by Muhammadan law, or 

 by national custom, or partly by one and partly by the other, 



