JELEBU CUSTOMARY SONGS AND SAYINGS. 33 



Two familiar spirits in one household, 

 Two ladders to one sugar-palm, 

 Sprouts without seed 

 Are offences against morals. 

 Custom looks for signs of guilt; 

 When custom declares the offence proved, 

 It is not a peccadillo to he mildly corrected. 

 Nor can recourse he had to religious law — 

 For this crime of taking two hrides when a man has 

 been given one. 



Trapped with his mistress, the intriguer is done for; 

 Leave his trace in her house and he will be fined. 



It is forbidden by custom 



To conceal and abet. 



It is approved by custom 



To bring to light and compare facts. 



The high way with its stepping stones, 



Hills and hill-bases, 



Lonely forest, 



Peep ravines, 



Broad plains, 



Sloping water-courses 



Belong to the birds. 



Deep pools 



To the fishes. 



Ravines and valleys, 



Hills and hill-bases 



Belong to the territorial tribe and their chief. 



Stretches of rice-field, 



Old betel-nut palms, 



Ancestral coconuts 



Belong to the tribal headmen. 



Disputes among their families 



Are the province of the elders. 



When a husband disputes about the property acquired 



by his own and his wife's joint labour 

 It is the province of his family. 

 Within the four threshold-beams of his house 

 Is a husband's province. 

 The high road with its stepping stones 

 Belongs to the king. 



3 Patoh ' ' to press softly, firmly e.g. of binding thatch- 

 ing on to bamboo lathes; fig. to render submissive; mematoli 

 orang jo lunaTc ruin elok 'to bend a person to one's Will gentleness 

 is the best course ' ' ' — Van der Toorn. 



* Bukau 'a hill base, land-locked basin, wide gorge' has 

 been corrupted in Rembau into oakau 'mangrove' ("Rembau," 

 p. 104 XVI). 



•"> ' Sloping ' — Van der Toorn 's ' ' Woordenloek. ' ' 



,; ' Old of persons and trees, ' id. 



