( 2 ) 
the country is, however, a good deal more stable 
than the Chinese or Indian. Many members of it 
take up small holdings, as do also Chinese and 
Indians, but a considerable proportion of these, 
especially in the Krian District of Perak, are under 
rice cultivation, while the Chinese and Indians, 
except in a few instances, confine themselves to 
planting rubber or coconuts. The Malayan rice- 
planter, with his few wants, is almost self-supporting, 
and is, therefore, comparatively little disturbed by 
the rise and fall of prices of the chief products of 
the country. The foreign Malayans being near re- 
lations of the Peninsular Malays, and of the same 
religion, frequently take locally-born wives, while 
the Chinese and Hindu foreigners cannot obtain 
Malay wives without becoming Mohammedans. 
With the exception of the Chinese shopkeeper 
and the Tamil money-lender (Chetty), the non- 
Malayan foreign population has little effect upon 
the native Malay in his village, but the Chinese 
petty trader has found his way into every corner 
of the country and is to be discovered, firmly 
established, even in the most out-of-the-way places. 
From him the Malay buys his salt fish, sugar, con- 
diments, rice (if he is not a rice-planter), tobacco, 
kerosene oil, and other small luxuries and necessities, 
while he also finances the fishermen on the coasts 
(much to their detriment) and, inland, makes ad- 
vances to parties of Malays or aborigines who 
contract to collect jungle-produce, chiefly rattans, 
for him. The Chinese rice-miller too will buy, or 
make advances on, a rice-planter’s crop, at a low 
price, before it is reaped. 
The Chetty has also a firm hold on many Malays. 
The Peninsular Malay, as may be judged from the 
fact that Chinese do almost all the petty trading. 
