72 REMBAU HISTORY, ETC. 
officers (bésar) of the slayer’s village were liable to a fine of one 
bhara ($14.20), payable to the Undang, for their negligence in 
permitting a quarrel to end so disastrously for the tribe. The 
murder of a member of the warzs tribe was paid for by a five- 
fold restitution, and if a blood relation of the Undang (di- 
bawah paiong kémbang) were slain, seven substitutes were 
- taken. 
Responsibi- 
lity of female 
heir for debts 
of the bache- 
lors of family. 
(a) 
debts. 
private 
But the waris tribe never gave a substitute. Even 
murder was no sufficient reason for the degradation of an heir 
of the soil to the level of an immigrant tribesman. The 
murdered man’s tribe might kidnap a warzs child, and 
generally made an armed demonstration against the waris 
family implicated, but the desultory fighting that ensued, 
culminated only in the arrival of the Undang who dealt out 
fines with impartial hand to elders, tribal officers. and 
Walrlors. 
It is recorded that during the Undangship of Dato’, Akhir 
(A.D., 1838-71.) a Kampar man, then affiliated to the Tanah 
Datar tribe, being slain by a warts of kampong Tébat, a band 
of Kampar men attempted to extort restitution from the 
Undang whom they approached through the Dato’ Maharaja 
Inda—tribal chief of the Tanah Datar tribe. The demand 
was refused, but the warzs Tebat were ordered to pay a fine 
of $100, together with the customary buffalo and rice, and to 
receive the Kampar men into their section of the wars tribe. 
Kampar settlers in Rembau thus left the Tanah Datar tribe, 
and became affiliated to the waris tribe, ranking as Beduanda 
Dagang. 
The second application of the principle is seen in the 
obligation of the holder of ancestral property to pay the debts 
of the bachelors of the family. Under Malay rule an insol- 
vent debtor became the slave of his creditor; he paid his debts 
in his body. The settlement of his debts alone preserved his 
free life, and hence became a duty of his mother’s family. 
The obligation to payment extended not only to the private 
debts of the bachelor, his unpaid bills, his less happy specu- 
lations, and his losses at the gaming table,—but also to the 
Jour. Straits Branch 
