Rights of | 
the Male. 
Usufruct. 
Tlerta ter- 
bawa. 
Principle on 
which the 
duties entailed 
on the female 
by her inheri- 
tance rest. 
70 -REMBAU HISTORY, ETC. 
Sembilan State Council in 1899 it was decided to permit to a 
male life-tenancy of ancestral lands in default of female heirs 
of the same degree. Under this ruling, if the holder of ances- 
tral property leave issue one son only, that son is entitled, 
should he press his claim to succeed to the ancestral lands, 
held by his mother, as tenant for life. At his death, those 
lands revert to his nearest female relative in the tribe. To 
ensure this ultimate reversion to the female heirs, the name 
of the person entitled to the reversionary interest in the 
ancestral property 1s now inserted, together with that of the 
male life tenant, in the customary title for the land. 
It would appear, then, at first sight, that the position 
‘of a male even in his own family circle is subordinate to his 
sisters to a degree inconsistent with equity. He gives his 
labour in the rice swamp in which, under strict customary 
law, he can never acquire a proprietary interest. He brings 
to his mother’s home some portion, at least, of his earnings 
as a bachelor, and should he die unmatried and in the care of 
his mother or sisters, what property he may possess becomes 
theirs. But in practice his position is not without compensa- 
tion of a substantial kind. 
The male is not denied by custom all the usufruct of 
ancestral property. The fruit of trees he plants in the 
ancestral kampong is his to sell or enjoy. When he leaves 
his home to marry or search for fortune (menchari untong) in 
the world, custom allows him to take away with him eash or 
kind, a share of his mother’s property (herta terbawa), though 
it grants at the same time to his mother a lien on that pro- 
perty, on his divorce or death. If misfortune is all his 
bachelor life brings him, then his family is liable for his debts, 
unless, indeed, he can find a woman willing to marry him thus 
encumbered. 
These duties of a mother to her sons arise from the 
principle that the holder of ancestral property is responsible 
for the life and blood of ail members of the family. Life and 
blood, says the custom, belong to the waris.” 
(1) vide App. I Saying XLI. 3 
Jour. Straits Branch 
