2(14 



A NATUltAlTSrS WANDEJIINQ8 



this region; but who they were and when they dwelt here is 

 tibsoliitely shrouded in oblivion. 



During my stay in the Passumah hiiide, the news that I was 

 an Englishman spread far, tmd I was several times visited by 

 people from the Passumah Ulu Manna district, which about 

 the year 1820 was under the rule of the English, having been 

 annexed to the East India Company*8 dominions when Sir 

 Stamford Raffles held the Lieutenant-GovemorBhip of Ben- 

 coolen. The original document, formally n-eognising them as 

 *' subjects of the Honourable Compamy, and entitlc^d to all the 

 privileges of tliat condition," was brought to me by the grandson 

 of one of the chiefs witli whom the treaty was then concluded, 

 carefully preser^'-ed in a bamboo case. He had heard, he said, that 

 I was English, and he had come several days' journey to see 

 nie, for he had heard buth his grandfather and his father 

 tell of the greatness of the " orang Ingris." It was at least 

 flattering t4} one's national pride to find how deep a hold 

 their rule liad taken on the gratitude of the jHJople, when 

 those of the third generation had come to extol to one of their 

 countrjTnen their merciful and just government, and with 

 wonderful, and of course exaggerated, tales of their liberality 

 and of the profuseness, richness, and grandeur of the Gover- 

 nor's court One old fellow came arrayed in one of his most 

 precious heirlooms, the English-made coat, of his grandfather, 

 of a purplish serge with steel-ring epaulets and witli a curved 

 sabre bearing King George's monogram worked on the handle* 

 He sadly bemoaned that the present Govcniment had not eon- 

 tinned to him the chieftainship of his father's raarga, and with 

 the present Passirahs it was evidently a sore matter that they 

 received no pay from the Government, when luider the English 

 rule they received seventy-five rupees a month (£75 sterling a 

 year), a great sum to these people- I was very amused by the way 

 one Passirah showed me his official dress. The " Company," 

 that is, the present government, for the designation still con- 

 tinues — "The Company gives me this" (*this' with a most 

 contemptuous cnrl of the lips), as he exhibited his own alongside 

 the English, uniform of his companion t^he costume did not 

 really deserve such a cnrl) ; " an<l I have to pay five rupees for 

 this " (a narrow- gold baud on the right arm), " and five rupees 

 for this " (its fellow on the left), and five lor this " (on the 



