The
Malays Are Bigoted, And For The Most Part Ignorant And Fanatical
Mohammedans, And I Firmly Believe That The Englishman
Whom they respect
most is only a little removed from being "a dog of an infidel." They
are really ruled
By the law of the Koran, and except when the Imaum,
who interprets the law, decides (which is very rarely the case)
contrary to equity, the British magistrate confirms his decision. In
fact, Mohammedan law and custom rule in civil cases, and the Imaum of
the mosque assists the judge with his advice. The Malays highly
appreciate the manner in which law is administered under English rule,
and the security they enjoy in their persons and property, so that they
can acquire property without risk, and accumulate and wear the
costliest jewels even in the streets of Malacca without fear of robbery
or spoliation. This is by no means to write that the Malays love us,
for I doubt whether the entente cordiale between any of the
dark-skinned Oriental races and ourselves is more than skin deep. It is
possible that they prefer being equitably taxed by us, with the
security which our rule brings, to being plundered by native princes,
but we do not understand them, or they us, and where they happen to be
Mohammedans, there is a gulf of contempt and dislike on their part
which is rarely bridged by amenities on ours. The pilgrimage to Mecca
is the great object of ambition. Many Malays, in spite of its expense
and difficulties, make it twice, and even three times. We passed three
women clothed in white from head to foot, their drapery veiling them
closely, leaving holes for their eyes. These had just returned from
Mecca. The picturesqueness of the drive home was much heightened by the
darkness, and the brilliancy of the fires underneath the Malay houses.
The great gray buffalo which they use for various purposes - and which,
though I have written gray, is as often pink - has a very thin and
sensitive skin, and is almost maddened by mosquitoes; and we frequently
passed fires lighted in the jungle, with these singular beasts standing
or lying close to them in the smoke on the leeward side, while Malays
in red sarongs and handkerchiefs, and pretty brown children scarcely
clothed at all, lounged in the firelight. Then Chinese lamps and
lanterns, and the sound of what passes for music; then the refinement
and brightness of the Government bungalow, and at ten o'clock my chair
with three bearers, and the solitude of the lonely Stadthaus.
I. L. B.
LETTER X
Malacca Mediaevalism - Tiger Stories - The Chinese Carnival - Gold and
Gems - A Weight of Splendor - New-Year Rejoicings - Syed Abdulrahman - A
Mohammedan Princess - A Haunted City - Francis Xavier - The Reward of
"Pluck" - Projects of Travel
STADTHAUS, MALACCA, January 23.
Malacca fascinates me more and more daily. There is, among other
things, a mediaevalism about it. The noise of the modern world reaches
it only in the faintest echoes; its sleep is almost dreamless, its
sensations seem to come out of books read in childhood.
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