A NANING RECITAL. 
21 
?. Line 50. Of the original twelve tribes only four are now 
known in Naning — the Seri Melenggang, Tiga Batu, Mungkal, 
and Anak Melaka ; but each has many exogamous sub-clans in 
many different Mukims. Their heads were known as the 
‘Pillars of the Hall’ of the Dato’ Naning ( Tiang Balai ) ; 
the word telapakan appears to mean the outer platform that 
surrounds the Balai slightly below the level of its floor. 
A full description of the twelve tribes in Rembau is given 
by Parr and Mac-kray in Rembau (Journal No. 56) ; see 
also Notes on the Negri Sembilan, Part 2, in Papers on Malay 
Subjects (F. M. S. Government Press). 
8. Line 61. Maharaja Hi Baja was the mythical Sultan of 
Menangkabau who — according to Naning tradition — divided 
the empire of the world with his two brothers Maharaja De- 
pang (Emperor of China) and Maharaja Alif (Emperor of 
Borne and Byzantium). All three (according to the same 
tradition) were sons of Alexander the Great; who was himself 
the ninety-first and last child of Father Adam, and — the ninety 
elder offspring having been paired off in Ptolemaic fashion — 
was provided (on the special intercession of the Prophet 
Muhammad) with a heaven-sent wife known as Tuan Puteri 
Siti Kayangan. 
Newbold gives a somewhat similar tradition. All the 
Peninsular Sultans claim descent from Alexander the Great 
through the Sassanidae; the mythical ancestry of the Negri 
Sembilan Rulers is given in Seri Menanti (Papers on Malay 
Subjects, F. M. S.). 
9. Line 63. This line might be translated — ‘ where swarming 
bees have stings of steel and this would agree in sense with 
the two following lines ; but the translation in the text is most 
probably correct. Trees where bees regularly hive are in some 
places considered a perquisite of the Baja, and pegs ( paling ) 
are hammered into the trunk to facilitate climbing. So too 
durian trees in the jungle : a line frequently found' with the 
line in the text is — 
Tempat durian di-takok Raja f 
Where the durian trees are notched by the Baja. 
The three lines 63 to 65 convey the idea of forbidden 
Royal ground ( tanali larangan Raja). 
10. Lines 69-71. These three lines are now a proverbial expres- 
sion for the three stages of Menangkabau jurisdiction. They 
are clearly out of place in this context. 
The word sesap means (like the more common word 
tebas) , ‘ to fell small scrub, clear undergrowth ’. Berpemarasan 
refers not to the levelling of earth, but to the cut ends of the 
severed trunk and the stump. 
R. A. Soc., No. 83, 1921. 
