-Y 



173 



Should a person desire to acquire such land out- 

 and-out in the same manner as wet rice-land, he must 

 "buy it from the owner. And ye must all give assist- 

 ance to your brethren in Islam [in permitting the 

 occupation of any spare land by such as may require 



it]. 



According to an accepted opinion of the judges 

 as to the custom regarding lands lying uncultivated, 

 no one has any right whatever to oppose the appro- 

 priation of such waste land by any one who desires 

 to cultivate it, unless the owner himself is going to 

 turn it to some advantage, or unless it island adjacent 

 to his holding, in either of which cases objection may 

 be made. 



[Forfeiture of Proprietary Eight upon Abandonment. 

 Menangkabau Code.'] 



If the owner of a plantation (kampong) or farm 

 (ladang) removes [and abandons it], the land reverts 

 to the Chief of his tribe fsuJcu) if he have no heirs or 

 representatives. 



In the case of a farm which has been abandoned, 

 that is to say, where a man has felled and cleared 

 forest-land and then has allowed his property to go 

 back to jungle, ye must by no means permit any op- 

 position on the part of the former cultivator to its 

 appropriation by another, for it is land which has re- 

 verted to jungle. Ye must not suffer the former 

 owners to dispute possession, for the field has gone 

 back to God, and custom declares that there shall be 

 no such dispute, 



