Selection of 
the Lawgiver. 
7S 
4. REMBAU HISTORY, ETC. 
tions finds proof in the formal division of Rembau into the 
Low country and the Inland districts (Tanah Sa-bélah baroh: 
Tanah Sa-bélah Darat.) | 
This dividing line ran East from Bukit Blakang Parang 
at Ulu Chénong, to Fermatang Gedang in the Bongek swamp, 
thence to Sengki at the junction of the Salah Nama and Séri- 
lémak streams, and to on the Pedas river near Bukit Melintang.” 
To conform to the Sumatran model Rembau still required a 
Lawgiver (Undang) as head of the federated tribes. 
By his marriage with To’ Bongkal, a daughter of the 
Jakun chief Batin Sakudai, To’ Lela Balang begat one son,” 
Si Rama. Claiming through his mother, by Menangkabau 
custom, Si Rama became head of the Waris Jakun, the elder 
division of the Waris tribe. In him consequently met the 
claims to supremacy alike of the aborigines and the first 
Menangkabau settlers, and the consent of the Malacca Sultan, 
then resident in Johor, was obtained to the selection of Si Rama 
as Undang in Rembau, with the title of Dato’ Lela Maharaja. 
The Waris Jakun were known thence forward as the Lela 
Maharaja family of the Warvs tribe. 3 
Previously to the first Rembau expedition To’ Laut Dalam 
had married a Javanese woman, and was therefore unable to 
press for his family any claim through Jakun blood. Yet he 
was jealous of the supremacy of his brother chief's descendants, 
and on further representations to Johor he succeeded in obtain- 
ing an equal recognition for himself with To’ Lela Balang, by 
securing the selection of the Undang in alternation from the 
Lela Maharaja family, and the descendants of his eldest 
(1) See sketch map. 
(2) Vide Sketch map. The boundary between Darat and Baroh 
ends at the Pedas stream —for the !and west of the Pedas is not tribal 
land but Tanah Waris (v. chap. Il $1.) The most Westerly point 
on the Rembau-Sungai Ujong boundary was Kuala Siliau. The 
present Rembau-Sungai Ujong boundary was fixed by Sir A. Clark 
aiter the destruction of the stockade at Bukit Tiga (Sempang Linggi) 
during the Rembau-Sungai Ujong-Linggi disturbances of 1874. 
(3) Distinct local tradition credits him also with four daughters. 
Jour. Straits Branch 
