ITHE BINUA OP JOJIORE* 
285 
eating lier stars hid them from the sight of the sun, who, believing them 
to be ail devoured, eat up her own. No sooner had she done so than 
the moon brought her family out of their hiding place. The sun on 
seeing them was filled with despair and rage, and chased the moon to 
kill her. This chase has continued ever since, the sun sometimes 
getting so near the moon as to bite her, which is an eclipse. The moon 
still hides all her children during the day when her pursuer is near 
and only brings them out at night when she is distant. 
When a Mintira becomes mad his parents must kill him to pre¬ 
vent his killing other persons. A sharp wooden sword must be 
used. 
Loans are freely given and no pledge is ever taken. 
The relation of the Malays to the Binua. —Every outlet 
from the country of the Binua is occupied and guarded by Malays, who, 
by preventing the free access of strangers and working on the igno¬ 
rance and fears of the Binua, keep them imprisoned in the interior. 
Having effectually locked them up in the jungles, they prey upon 
them in the most unscrupulous manner. It is probable that if the 
character of the Binua had been weaker they would long since have 
been reduced to direct slavery. But although timid and unwarlike, 
they have stubborn notions of right and wrong, and any attempt at com¬ 
pulsion is met with an obstinate resistance. The Malay therefore 
-respects the independence and the hadats of the Binua, adapts him¬ 
self to his notions, and has recourse to craft and cajolery to attain 
his ends. He treats his victims with a great shew of respect and 
kindness, and cheats them to their faces in the most courteous and 
friendly manner. While he dreads the power of the Poyangs, he is 
well aware at the same time of the influence of his bolder and more 
energetic and reckless character on the Binua, and, when occasion 
requires it, talks of his good will being abused, of the inadequacy and 
dilatoriness of the return that is being made to him for his advances, 
and hints*that if his debtor does not prove more diligent he will not be 
able to restrain his anger. 
The Binua of Johore evidently owes to the Malays every depar¬ 
ture from his original forest habits. If we deprive him of those ar¬ 
ticles for which they have purposely infected him with a taste, and 
those which he has voluntarily sought from the desire to imitate and 
approximate to the habits of the more civilized appropriators of his 
country, there will remain hardly any thing to distinguish him from 
the wilder of the Berrmm races. Indeed examples may yet be .seen 
