74 
FASCICULI MALATENSES 
Patent fisherman in our service had married a rich woman who owned a tenth 
share in a fishing boat. Although he was apparently quite willing to share 
her wealth, he was otherwise of an independent nature, and was so worried 
by the restrictions she put upon his goings and comings that, after taking 
to opium (just for a joke, he explained, not as a business), he finally departed 
from her into another village, whence he sent her a letter of divorce, not 
venturing to cast her off in person. 
In thePatani States, Malay society is divided into numerous families ( kaufn\ 
which are so far endogamous that they prefer that their girls should marry 
within the limits of the family. Each family has its own customs and sets a 
definite and unalterable price on all its maidens, whether they be beautiful or 
ugly, skilful or the reverse * this price having been fixed by long-established 
custom. Conventionally, however, the price is considered not as payment 
but rather as a free gift presented by the bridegroom to the bride’s 
parents, and even the Patani Malays consider frank marriage by purchase, 
as practised among the jungle tribes, a barbarous and ridiculous custom. 
The marriage gift varies in different families from eight to thirty dollars, 
being higher in the town of Patani than in the country districts, where it is 
often paid in kind—in cattle, fish or the like. 
Such, in outline, are the customs that regulate marriage among the 
Malays of the Patani States, but though the principles of the Mahommedan 
law are the same in all parts of the Malay Peninsula, it is probable that the 
conditions of its application have always been rather different in Perak, seeing 
that the civilization of that state has had a somewhat different character, having 
been less influenced by Indo-Chinese factors and, probably, more influenced 
by communication with Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Achin. Though the women 
are far from undergoing the isolation customary in many Mahommedan 
countries, they do not appear to have enjoyed the extremely independent position 
of their sisters under Siamese rule, who, while theoretically under the absolute 
dominance of the male, are permitted to carry on their own business and even 
to make journeys away from home in its prosecution. Moreover, British 
protection has increased the cost of living in the Federated Malay States 
tremendously, partly by raising the standard of comfort and more especially 
by encouraging the immigration of Chinese miners and Indian agricultural 
labourers. Consequently the age of marriage is much retarded, the marriage 
expenses of even a poor man amounting to three or four hundred dollars 
(which he usually borrows from a money-lender), while concubinage is more 
frequent as being less expensive and divorce far less frequent, the man 
having paid a large price for his wife. On the other hand, the comparatively 
