Intert:ibal 
Leagues. 
6 REMBAU HISTORY, ETC. 
new-comer owed no feudal allegiance to the lembaga’s person. 
To this limited extent only did territorial considerations trench 
upon the purely tribal system of Rembau. 
This privilege of the elder chiefs was guaranteed by the 
formation of intertribal leagues in both districts of the state. 
The Baroh district—the district watered by the Rembau 
river—is constituted as two leagues: (I) the league of the Four 
chiefs and (II) the league of the Five tribes. Oi; these the 
former only secured any territorial rights to the contracting 
chiefs. The league of the five tribes was a purely political 
organisation. 
I. The league of the Four chiefs (émpat sa-bélah baroh)- 
The followers of To’ Lela Balang, himself a member of the 
Sumatran tribe of Batu Hampar, who led the first expedition 
from Menangkabau to Rembau, were drawn from the Batu 
Hampar and Mungkal tribes: while To’ Laut, joint leader of 
the earliest Mohammedan immigration, brought with him as 
his special adherents, members of his own tribe, the Paya 
Kumboh, and of the Tiga Nenek tribe. 
After the grant of titles to To’ Lela Balang and To’ Laut 
by the Johor Raja, these two chiefs formed with the chiefs of 
the Mungkal and Tiga Nenek tribes, the league of the 
Four. 
The Four chiefs stand on an axiomatic equality tempered 
by sentiment. To’ Lela Balang and To’ Laut as joint leaders 
of the pioneer immigration, as the respective fathers of the 
male founder of the Waris Jakun family and of the ultimate 
female ancestor of the Waris Jawa, and as the first Rembau 
chiefs to obtain recognition of titles from the Muhammedan 
Empire of the Peninsula, take precedence over the chiefs of 
the Mungkal and Tiga Nenek tribes. But if sentiment based 
on historical fact knows of elder and younger in the Four, 
constitutional theory and practice ignore such a distinction. 
Individually each of the Four wields independent authority in 
his tribe. Collectively the Four composed—-until the reform 
of 1831 A.D.—the council of lembaya without refence to which 
the Undang was constitutionally unable to deliver judgment 
Jour. Straits Dranch 
