FIVE DAYS IN NAN IN G. 
27 
whose lands are exempted from the tithe, and whose business 
it is to make himself a terror to evil-doers, and, when need 
is, to bring detected criminals to justice at Malacca. Abdul- 
rah man’s house lay in one of the plantations on the right 
side of the road, and as it is a fair specimen of the style 
of the better class of houses in Nailing, I will briefly describe 
it:—The body of the house is about 40 feet square and, like 
all Malay cottages, rests on posts, so that the floor is some 
feet above the ground. It is divided by a partition into a 
large and a small room. A few steps lead down from the 
former into a broad verandah or gallery, which runs along 
the whole front of the house, and at one end extends about 
24 feet beyond it. 7 he sides and partition of the house are 
of pannelled wood work. The ends of the verandah are 
of similar wood work, with a curiously carved narrow win¬ 
dow, or rather a row of slits, in each. In front and at the 
back of the projecting end, a wooden parapet about 2| 
feet in height forms the only obstruction to the free ingress 
of the air and light. On the wall of the verandah are hung 
some deer’s horns and skulls, the trophies of the house- 
holderVforest craft. Fine mats are spread on a portion of 
the floor, and others lie at one end in readiness for any 
unusual influx of visitors, for the verandah forms at once the 
visiting, eating, and sleeping place for guests. The large 
room into which we ascend from the verandah, is only used 
as a reception room on feasts and other great occasions, and 
ordinarily forms a convenient store-room for the less valuable 
household stuff, such as baskets of different kinds, mats, &c. 
Around a wooden post in the middle are hung an abundance 
of spears, swords, and other weapons of several sorts, for 
the Malayan armoury displays a motley and curious assort¬ 
ment of weapons. A number of baskets of paddy, which 
had been newly brought in from the field and were not yet 
cleaned for the granary, were placed on the floor. The 
smaller room was my host’s bed chamber, the only place in 
the whole kampong sacred to privacy. At one end was a 
curtained bed, and on the other were stuck or suspended 
some fire-arms and a great variety of krises, swords and 
knives. Some of the krises were sinuous in shape and 
damasked or striated,—slight rough ridges rising from the 
surface of the blade and giving it the appearance of a num¬ 
ber of thin plates having been welded together and their 
edges left projecting. Amongst these weapons were the 
kris panjang, k. sampana, k. sapukul, chinangkas, klewang* 
pidkng menangkabau, golah Ilambau &c. 
