178 THE INDEPENDENT NATIVE STATES 



Besides the internal struggles in Perak, Selangor, Sungei 

 Ujong, Hambau, &c, there was an outstanding question of boun- 

 baries — first between Perak and Selangor, then between Selangor 

 and Sungei Ujong, and again between Sungei Ujong and Eambau 

 — which threatened to, at any time, involve the whole of this part 

 of the Peninsula in war. 



Any number of instances might be given to shew the kind of 

 rule under which the Malays have hitherto lived, one or two will, 

 however, be sufficient. 



In the reign of Sultan Jaefae, there was in Perak a Trengganu 

 man, who had such a sweet voice, that when he read the Koran all 

 who heard him were charmed with it. On one occasion he was 

 reading in the presence of the Sultan, and one of the women of 

 the harim was so struck that she, contrary to custom, came out to 

 listen. Some of the woman's relations chose to feel aggrieved by this, 

 and when the man went out, they lay in wait to kill him, but 

 knowing he was armed with a very famous kriss they feared to 

 molest him. They then complained to the Sultan, and asked what 

 was to be done ; his reply was " You are fools, first take his kriss 

 and then kill him." Accordingly, acting on this advice, one of 

 them made an excuse to borrow the weapon, and when the Treng- 

 ganu man went out to look for him, the others stabbed him until 

 their krisses met in his body. 



In Larut, the Chinese, believing a man guilty of too great fami- 

 liarity with another man's wife, took both the suspected parties, 

 man and woman, put them in wicker baskets, and threw them 

 into an abandoned tin mine, which had become filled with water. 

 It is also stated that a similarly suspected couple were bound, 

 nude, and partially buried in the middle of a road, where every 

 passer-by thrust into their bodies a piece of stick sharpened 

 at one end and lighted at the other. 



In Perak, too, when a man wished to revenge himself on 

 another for a real or fancied wrong, the ordinary course was to 

 plan and carry out a midnight " amok," which consists in a num- 

 ber of men, armed to the teeth, making a rush on a house, murder- 

 ing every one they meet, and then burning the place. 



