FOLK-LORE AND THE 
MENANGKABAU CODE IN THE 
NEGRI SEMBILAN. 
By A. HALE, DISTRICT OFFICER, TAMPIN. 
The Negri Sembilan, unlike the other Protected States of the 
Malay Peninsula, has not yet quite got away from the traditions 
which prevailed amongst the Aboriginal tribes ; these traditions 
were partly adopted and somewhat modified by the colonists 
from other States of the Peninsula and from Sumatra; who, as 
the Resident, the Hon. Martin Lister, has pointed out in a paper 
communicated to the Society in 1887, ‘fell in with the 
Aboriginal views, and observed their rights to all waste lands, 
and their power in each State” but at the same time ‘ brought 
their tribal laws with them.” 
It is well known that the primitive Malays of Sumatra 
practised exogamy, and—like all other exogametic races 
inter-tribal marriage was one of the most heavily punished 
offences. 
When I went to the District of Kinta, Perak, in 1884, and 
was engaged in settling native Malay claims to mining lands, it 
puzzled me at first to understand the term ‘‘ Waris Kinta,” 
which was often quoted by native mine owners, and when I was 
transferred to an appointment in the Negri Sembilan, | remember 
that the late Sir Frederick Weld told me that one of the chief 
reasons why he had selected me, was, because there were few 
men in the service who could distinguish between a Warzs and 
a Lembaga. I am afraid I looked confused, and I know that as 
soon as I got back to my Hotel, I looked in my ‘“ Swettenham” 
and found that the word Lembaga meant somebody who had 
something to do in the affairs of the State. I had not lived 
long in Tampin, and mixed in Rembow and Gemencheh affairs 
before the distinction was made quite clear to me. 
