SUMATRA 
which he can redeem his wife and family, is hundred doilars ; and 
if he can raife that, and the woman is wlllmg to go with him^ the father 
cannot refufe them ; and now the affuir is changed into a hdo marriage^ 
the man returns to his former tsmgooan (fettlement or family), and be- 
comes of more confequence in fociety. Thefe people are not Urangers 
to that fentiment which we call a regard to family. There are fome 
families among them more cfleemcd than others, though not graced 
with any title or employment in the llate. The origin of this dirtindion, 
at is difficult to trar^, but I am iuullned to think that it arifes from a fuc- 
ceflion of men of abilities* Every one has a regard to his race, and the 
probability of its being extindt, is efteemcd a great unhappinefs. f This 
is what they call toongQom pcciGc/i^ and the expreffion is ufed by the 
lowed member of the community. To have a wife, a family, collateral 
relations, and a fettled place of re/idence, is to have a tmigsoaUy and this 
they are anxious to fupport and perpetuate. It is with this view, that 
ivhen a fingle female only remains of a family, they marry her by amhet 
am ; in which mode the hufband's confequence is loft in the wife's, and 
in her children the ^«w/ogwt<rflf of licr fothcr in continuecL They find her 
a hufband that will mentggft tcong&oa/i, or as it is exprefled amongft the 
Rejangs, memgga rmna^ fet up the houfe again* 
The /emunda marriage is Iktle known in Pafumnrnk I reeolk^l that 
a pangeran of Manna having a fon by a femundo mjirriage with a Malay 
\voman, ihc refu fed, upon the father's death, to let the boy fucceed to his 
dignities, and at the fame time become anfwerable for his debts, and 
carried him with her from the country ; which was produ6:ive of much 
confuiion. t*lor did it appear that the laws of the country could compel 
the child to be refponiible for his father's engagements* 
When a young woman is difcovered to be with child before marriage, 
Ihe, or more properly, her father, is fined forty dollars, or in failure of 
payment the girl becomes a flavc. The man is fined thirty dollars* This 
is c2X\tdgaway pmijingan* The woman's fine goes to the calippah, and the 
man*s to the inferior proattcens. The offending parties are likewifc 
M m m obliged 
