REMBAU HISTORY, ETC. 5 
daughter’ by her marriage with Si Rama. The family of To’ 
Laut was known thenceforward as the Waris Jawa, in allusion 
to the nationality of the first female ancestor. The Jawa 
Undang took the title of Sedia Raja. 
The claim of the Sedia Raja family—the Waris Jawa-— 
to rank as Waris, or heirs to the soil, is strictly invalid, 
according to Menangkabau custom, in that the male and 
not the female ancestor was of Sakai blood and though the two 
families are equal in prerogative, the Wars Jakun hold to this 
day a sentimental precedence over the Waris Jawa. 
The state of Rembau was then constituted as a federation 
of tribes each under one or more tribal chiefs (lembaga) who 
in turn were subject to the Undang. But it is apparent that 
the real power was vested in the Lembaga. No one could 
live in Rembau unattached to a tribe or without increasing by 
his advent the importance of some tribal chief. 
The new settler had no free hand in the choice of his 
tribe. Custom laid down strict rules for the allocation of the 
stranger—the settler from other countries than Menangkabau. 
He had as the saying records * his alloted place, as a boat is 
moored in the stream. The Jambi man was absorbed into the 
Batu Hampar tribe, the Javanese entered the Reduanda Jawa, 
the Siamese became a member of the Paya Kumboh tribe and 
the Kampar man joined the Suku Tanah Datar. 
Even the later Menangkabau settler who cleared a patch 
of swamp for his padi plantation or a few acres of jungle for 
his coconuts, brought himself, by his choice of locality, into 
relations with the chief of the earliest settlers in that valley. 
The elder chiefs, both in the low country and the inland dis- 
trict, secured for their tribes a sphere of influence. A settler 
within the definite area, irrespective of the tribe into which he 
was born, ranked as an adherent (anak buah) of the pioneer 
chief. Yet the tribe and not the chief, was the gainer for the 
. (1) Tradition fathers 4 daughters on To’ Laut, viz., Siti Sovak 
Samsiah, Norimah and Melidi. : 
(2) v. Sayings No. 1. 
R. A. Soc., No, 56, 1910, 
The Constitu- 
tion of Rem- 
bau a tribal 
Federation. 
