Many Men And Women, However, Rarely Incur Debts, Knowing Well What Lies
Before Them In Case Of Non-Payment.
Malays, by their laws, are allowed to buy and sell slaves, and if,
having for years lost sight of a slave, the owner finds him or her, he
takes the slave with his wife and family, if he has one, as his lawful
property.
There is one other phase of debtor-bondage, and that a common one,
where the father or mother places one or more of their own children as
security with the creditor for a debt; thus in reality selling their
own flesh and blood into often a life-long bondage. If these children
die on the creditor's hands, the parents supply their places by others,
or the Rajah, should he wish it, can at any time after the debt is due,
take the whole family into his house.
Only the other day a man here, for a debt of $40, placed his daughter
in a Rajah's hands and ran away. Probably he will never return;
meanwhile the girl must obey her master in all things like the veriest
slave. Such a state of things as this is only brought about by the
custom which allows it.
Another common practice in the States, more especially in Perak, is to
capture, as you might wild beasts, the unoffending Jakun women, and
make them and their children slaves through generations.
In April I was in Ulu Selangor, and the headmen there complained that a
chief from Slim had a fortnight before caught 14 Jakuns and one Malay
in Ulu Selangor, had chained them and driven off to Slim.
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