the mouth of the Kĕlantan river on State occasions, though the administration of
the country is still entirely in the hands of the Râja and his Chiefs.
The methods of Malay rulers, when they are unchecked by extraneous
influences, are very curious; and those who desire to see the Malay Râja and the
Malay räayat in their natural condition, must nowadays study life on the East
Coast. Nowhere else has the Malay been so little changed by the advancing
years, and those who are only acquainted with the West Coast and its people, as
they are to-day, will find much to learn when they visit the Eastern sea-board.
Until British interference changed the conditions which existed in Pahang, that
country was the best type of an independent Malay State in the Peninsula, and
much that was to be seen and learned in Pahang, in the days before the
appointment of a British Resident, cannot now be experienced in quite the same
measure anywhere else. Both Trĕnggânu and Kĕlantan have produced their
strong rulers—for instance, Băginda Ümar of Trĕnggânu, and the 'Red-mouthed
Sultân' of Kĕlantan—but neither of the present Râjas can boast anything
resembling the same personality and force of character, or are possessed of the
same power and influence, as distinguished Sultân Âhmad Maätham Shah of
Pahang, in the brave days before the coming of the white men.
In subsequent articles, I hope, by sketching a few events which have occurred in
some of the States on the East Coast; by relating some characteristic incidents,
many of which have come within my experience; and by descriptions of the
conditions of life among the natives, as I have known them; to give my
European readers some idea of a state of Society, wholly unlike anything to
which they are accustomed, and which must inevitably be altered out of all
recognition by the rapidly increasing influence of foreigners in the Malay
Peninsula.
Footnotes:
[1] Räayat = Peasants, villagers.
[2] Pĕnghûlu = Headman.
[3] Sĕmang = Aboriginal natives of the Peninsula, belonging to the Negrit
family.
[4] Sâkai = Aboriginal natives of the Peninsula, belonging to the Mon-