MALAY LAND TENURE. 123 



e.g., the real property by customary law and the personal pro- 

 perty by Muhammadan law. 



There are Malay treatises on the Muhammadan law of inhe- 

 ritance (faraiz *), in accordance with the rules of which it is 

 common to apportion the estate of an intestate. But there are 

 reasons which often make it clear to the Malay mind that land 

 is a species of property, the transmission of which should be 

 in accordance with the national customary law ( hukum ( adat ) 

 rather than with that of the Koran (hukum shar'a). For 

 instance, the wife of a Malay cultivator will generally share in 

 the toil of cultivation ; indeed the planting and reaping of 

 paddy is performed almost entirely by women, although the 

 ploughing and harrowing fall to the lot of the men. In res- 

 pect, therefore, of the crop, which is harvested as the result of 

 these joint labours, the husband and wife are co-partners 

 (sharikat ) and this is often the case with regard to the land 

 itself. Under such circumstauces, in case of the death of the 

 husband, it would be manifestly unjust to distribute the joint 

 property as his estate under Muhammadan law. The joint 

 property must be equally divided, and the share of the wife 

 having been allotted to her, the share of the deceased husband 

 may, if desired, be distributed in accordance with the Muham- 

 madan law of inheritance. This is only the rightful due of the 

 wife, who, properly speaking, is entitled to be maintained by her 

 husband in a manner befitting his station in life without per- 

 forming any labour. 



I think that it will be generally found that, in the Malay 

 States, the property of the trading class — goods, merchandise, 

 shops, ships, &c. — are distributed according to Muhammadan 

 law, while the agricultural class cling with tenacity to their 

 old customs, and insist that their lands at least, and often the 

 whole of their property, shall descend in accordance with the 

 old Malay law which has come down to them from their fore- 

 fathers. 



This customary law varies very much according to locality, 

 individual States having often regulations peculiar to them 

 alone. 



# t/^-1^' Pl ura l of t-*if, from ^jdj to cut. (Arabic.)- 



