2 
A NANING RECITAL. 
attributed in part to the natural fitness of the Custom for regulat- 
ing the life of a peasant community of exogamous clans. Changed 
economic conditions are weakening its hold (ten years of the rub- 
ber industry, for example, have already left their mark) ; but it 
is the union of ancient customary law with a lenient British rule 
that has given the Naning peasantry so comfortable a lot with so 
few regrets for the past. When the Attorney General ( J ) referred to 
them a few years ago in the Legislative Council of the Colony, he 
quoted the famous lines : 
0 fortunatos nimi-um, sua si bona norint. 
Agricolas! 
This speecli (or, rather, poem) is intended for recital by the 
Elder of a Clan at the formal ceremony of marriage, when the 
bridegroom, his clansman, comes in torchlight procession to the 
bride’s house for payment of the bride-price. The escort, armed 
with spear and kris, and waging a realistic sham fight with the 
retainers of the bride, forces its way slowly through the crowded 
l-ampong, with charges, retreats and rallies; the torch-lit space 
under the coconut palms is filled with the swaying crowd of 
fighters ; drums, fifes, guns, gongs and Chinese crackers make a con- 
tinuous din; and the sorah war-cry or the shrill voices of the 
dzUcir-singers round the bridegroom rise at intervals above the 
general tumult. At length the steps of the house are reached, a 
fee is paid to open the cord across the entrance, and the bride- 
groom, dressed in silks and loaded with armlets and anklets, is 
led up into the house by his friends. The Elder of the bride’s 
clan is seated with his clansmen at the far end of the brightly lit 
verandah, and to him the speaker addresses the recital, pausing and 
raising his hands together in salutation ( sembah ) at each recur- 
rence of the words ‘ Homage, 0 Chief ! ’. 
Ungkai Lisut informed me that these recitals are less regarded 
now than when he was young — wedding guests are more impatient 
for the arrival of curry and rice — and that he had recited the full 
speech only on two occasions. The first was the wedding of the 
daughter of Kathi Ahmad — a man of great note in the Kelemak 
Mukim in those days ; the second, a marriage at Jelatang. On 
this latter occasion a ‘ very clever ’ man from Brisu, famous for 
his knowledge of customary sayings, was known to have been en- 
gaged ‘to receive the bride-price’ ( menerima adat) : he would 
undoubtedly make an oration and put the bridegroom and his 
people to shame if they could not produce a rival speaker. 
In these circumstances, although the bridegroom was not of 
his own elan, Ungkai Lisut was called on for help and invited 
‘to pay the bride-price’ ( mengisi adat) ; he accepted the invita- 
tion and delivered this recital. At the end of it the clever man 
from Brisu sat as discomfited and dumb as the Queen of Sheba 
(1). The Hon’ble Mr. J. R. Innes (formerly a District Officer of Alor 
Gajah), in proposing an amendment of the Malacca Lands Ordinance, designed 
to secure the Naning Malays in safe enjoyment of their ancestral holdings. 
Jour. Straits Branch, 
