Sungai Ujong. 
By R. J. Wjlkinson, c.m.g. 
I 
Part I. 
The Dato’ Klana Putra, territorial chief of Sungai Ujong, 
ranks as the premier chief of the Negri Sembilan, though there is 
nothing to show how he obtained this precedence. He possesses 
a modern title and an ancient chieftaincy: as far back as the 
fifteenth century there were rulers of Sungai Ujong, who bore 
the title of Penghulu Manteri and acknowledged the Sultan of 
Malacca as their overlord. In those days the country was an ap- 
panage of the Bendaharas of Malacca, and the chiefs sent to govern 
it were members or vassals of that distinguished house. The seal 
of the Rulers of Rembau quotes as its authority “ the grace of the 
Bendahara Sri Maharaja”, apparently with the date 1707 A.D. ; 
that of the Dato’ Bandar quotes Sultan Abdul-Jalil III, 1715; 
that of the Dato’ of Jelebu quotes Sultaai Abdul-Jalil V (who 
flourished in 1758) ; that of the Dato’ of Johol is dated 1778. 
There is the contemporary evidence of the “ Malay Annals ” as to 
the political position of Sungai Ujong in 1612 A.D. and as to the 
semi-mythical Dato’ Sekudai. Finally in the early days of Sungai 
Ujong, descent was not traced through the female line. So one may 
brush aside the claim of some Negri Sembilan chiefs that they 
govern their territories by virtue of descent in the female line from 
the aboriginal Batins, the primeval owners of the country. 
According to one story the origin of the Biduanda is ascribed 
to a Batin Sri Alarn who met a walking tree-trunk near the waters 
of the River Langat. He captured and kept it in captivity till it 
laid eggs, forty-four in number. He buried the eggs till they were 
hatched, when there emerged forty-four children, the ancestors of 
the Biduanda. Batin Sri Alam brought up these children and 
supplied them with garments of bark-cloth to cover their naked- 
ness. When they grew up, twenty-two of the children crossed to 
Sumatra and colonized the coast as far as the borders of the Batak 
country: the remaining twenty-two stayed in the Peninsula and 
became Biduanda or Ray at — the latter word being said to mean 
“ sons of the soil ”. Another story explains that every man falls 
from heaven, either on his feet as a raja, or on his seat as a Batin, 
or on his face as a slave. Batin Sri Alam rose from his seat and 
went round the world ruling the slaves — the Bedouin in Arabia, 
the biduan in India and the Biduanda in Malaya, the three words 
being translated “ serf ” ! Folklore and etymology are, of course, 
irreconcilable enemies. 
Jour. Straits Branch, R. A. Soc., No. 83, 1921. 
