There Is No Rest Either By Night
Or Day, Joss-Sticks Burn Incessantly, And Lamps Before The Ancestral
Tablets, Gongs
Are beaten, gingalls fire incessantly, and great
crackers like cartridges fastened together in rows are let off at
intervals before
Every door to frighten away evil spirits; there are
family banquets of wearisome length, feasts to the household gods,
offerings in the temples, processions in the street by torch and
lantern light, presents are given to the living, and offerings to the
dead, the poor are feasted, and the general din is heightened by
messengers perambulating the streets with gongs, calling them to the
different banquets. When the fortnight of rejoicing is over its signs
are removed, and after the outbreak of extravagant expenditure the
Chinese return to their quiet, industrious habits and frugal ways.
Just as this brilliant display left the room, a figure in richer
coloring of skin appeared - Babu, the head servant, in his beautiful
Hadji dress. He wore white full trousers, drawn in tightly at the
ankles over black shoes, but very little of these trousers showed below
a long, fine, linen tunic of spotless white, with a girdle of orange
silk. Over this was a short jacket of rich green silk, embroidered in
front with green of the same color, and over all a pure white robe
falling from the shoulders. The turban was a Mecca turban made of many
yards of soft white silk, embroidered in white silk. It was difficult
to believe that this gorgeous Mussulman, in the odor of double
sanctity, with his scornful face and superb air, could so far demean
himself as to wait on "dogs of infidels" at dinner, or appear in my
room at the Stadthaus, with matutinal tea and bananas!
This magnificence heralded the Datu Klana, Syed Abdulrahman, the
reigning prince of the native State of Sungei Ujong, his principal
wife, and his favorite daughter, a girl of twelve. It has been decided
that I am to go to Sungei Ujong, and that I am to be escorted by Mr.
Hayward, the superintendent of police, but, unfortunately, I am to go
up in the Datu Klana's absence, and one object of his visit was to
express his regret. This prince has been faithful to British interests,
and is on most friendly terms with the resident, Captain Murray, and
the Governor of Malacca. During his visit Babu interpreted, but Miss
Shaw, who understands Malay, said that, instead of interpreting
faithfully, he was making enormous demands on my behalf! At all events,
Syed Abdulrahman, with truly exaggerated Oriental politeness, presented
me with the key of his house in the interior.
This prince is regarded by British officials as an enlightened ruler,
though he is a rigid Mussulman. His dress looked remarkably plain
beside that of the splendid Babu. He wore a Malay bandana handkerchief
round his head, knotted into a peak, a rich brocade baju or short
jacket, a dark Manilla sarong, trousers of Mandarin satin striped with
red, a girdle clasp set with large diamonds, and sandals with jeweled
cloth-of-gold straps. His wife, though elderly and decidedly plain
looking, has a very pleasing expression. She wore a black veil over her
head, and her kabaya, or upper garment, was fastened with three diamond
clasps. The bright little daughter wore a green veil with gold stars
upon it over her head, and ornaments of rich, red gold elaborately
worked. The Datu Klana apologized for the extreme plainness of their
dress by saying that they had only just arrived, and that they had
called before changing their traveling clothes. When they departed the
two ladies threw soft silk shawls over their heads, and held them so as
to cover their faces except their eyes.
There are now sixty-seven thousand Malays in the British territory of
Malacca, and the number is continually increased by fugitives from the
system of debt-slavery which prevails in some of the adjacent States,
and by immigration from the same States of Malays who prefer the
security which British rule affords.
[The police force is Malay, and it seems as if the Malays had a special
aptitude for this semi-military service, for they not only form the
well-drilled protective forces of Malacca, Sungei Ujong, and Selangor,
but that fine body of police in Ceylon of which Mr. George Campbell has
so much reason to be proud. Otherwise very few of them enter British
employment, greatly preferring the easy, independent life of their
forest kampongs.]
The commercial decay of Malacca is a very interesting fact.* Formerly
fifty merchantmen were frequently lying in its roads at one time. Here
the Portuguese fleet lay which escorted Xavier from Goa, and who can
say how many galleons freighted with the red gold of Ophir floated on
these quiet waters! Now, Chinese junks, Malay prahus, a few Chinese
steamers, steam-launches from the native States, and two steamers which
call in passing, make up its trade. There is neither newspaper, banker,
hotel, nor resident English merchant, The half-caste descendants of the
Portuguese are, generally speaking, indolent, degraded with the
degradation that is born of indolence, and proud. The Malays dream away
their lives in the jungle, and the Chinese, who number twenty thousand,
are really the ruling population.
[*Linscholt, two hundred and seventy years ago, writes: - "This place is
the market of all India, of China, and the Moluccas, and of other
islands round about, from all which places, as well as from Banda, Java,
Sumatra, Siam, Pegu, Bengal, Coromandil, and India, arrive ships which
come and go incessantly charged with an infinity of merchandises."]
The former greatness of Malacca haunts one at all times. The romantic
exploits of Albuquerque, who conquered it in 1511, apostrophized in the
Lusiad -
"Not eastward far though fair Malacca lie,
Her groves embosomed in the morning sky,
Though with her amorous sons the valiant line
Of Java's isle in battle rank combine,
Though poisoned shafts their ponderous quivers store,
Malacca's spicy groves and golden ore,
Great Albuquerque, thy dauntless toils shall crown,"
live again, though my sober judgment is that Albuquerque and most of
his Portuguese successors were little better than buccaneers.
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