armed with his kris, or other weapon, and entering the women’s apartment, or
posting himself at the door, secures the person of his intended bride, or prevents
her escape. He runs the risk of being killed on the spot by the girl’s relations, and
his safety depends upon his reputation for courage and strength, and upon the
number of his friends and the influence of his family. A wooer who adopts this
violent method of compelling the assent of unwilling relations to his marriage to
one of their kin must, say the Malays, have three qualifications—
“Ka-rapat-an baniak,
Wang-nia ber-lebih,
Jantan-nia ber-lebih,‘A strong party to back him, plenty of money, and no lack of bravery.’
“Plenty of money is necessary, because, by accepted custom, if the relations
yield and give their consent all the customary payments are doubled; the fine for
the trespass, which would ordinarily be twenty-five dollars, becomes fifty
dollars; the dower is likewise doubled, and the usual present of clothes (salin)
must consist of two of each of the three garments (salendang, baju, kain),
instead of one as usual. The fine for panjat angkara may be of any amount,
according to the pleasure of the woman’s relations, and they fix it high or low
according to the man’s position. I have heard of one case in Pêrak, where the
fine was five hundred dollars, and another in which the suitor, to obtain his
bride, had to pay one thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, namely, one
thousand two hundred and fifty dollars as a fine, and five hundred dollars for the
marriage expenses. But in this case the girl was already betrothed to another, and
one thousand dollars out of the fine went to the disappointed rival.
“Sometimes the relations hold out, or the man, for want of one of the three
qualifications mentioned above, has to beat an ignominious retreat. In the reign
of Sultan Ali, one Mat Taib, a budak raja, or personal attendant on the Sultan,
asked for Wan Dêna, the daughter of the Bandahara of Kedah (she then being at
Kota Lama in Pêrak) in marriage. Being refused he forced his way into the
house, and seizing the girl by her long hair drew his kris, and defied everybody.
No one dared to interfere by force, for the man, if attacked, would have driven
his kris into the girl’s body. This state of things is said to have lasted three days
and three nights, during which the man neither ate nor slept. Eventually he was
drugged by an old woman from whom he accepted some food or water, and