Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

504
THE SOCIAL ORDER
Individual property does not exist ; its place is
taken by family property.^ So, too, cultivation is
carried out in common, and the plantation is culti-
vated by all the members of the family under the
directions of the father, extra work being imposed in
default. The produce is shared between all the
members of the family (and, perhaps, even with a few
of their neighbours). What proves this community
of cultivation, is the fact that as soon as one of the
sons of the family takes up land elsewhere, he is ex-
cluded from his share of the produce of the plantation,
although he is nevertheless very well received when
he comes to pay a visit to his parents.^
Successio7i?
The order of inheritance is as follows:— (i) Descendants,
(2) ascendants, and (3) collateral branches
of the same family. The rights of the first class
include representation, or the rights of the children of
' On the other hand we have the
following statements from Vaughan-
Stevens : — *' Women, though they
might not hold office, were allowed to
possess land. At marriage such land
passed to the husband, the wife losing
all title to it. But all durian and
other trees, if planted either by herself
or by her orders, were her exclusive-
property, and might be made over to
any one whom she chose in the lifetime
of her husband. In such cases
the tree was marked in the presence of
the chief with the sign of its new
possessor (such signs consisting of an
incision), which varied with each in-
dividual, and which was cut into the
bark of the tree thus disposed of. A
married woman ran no great danger
of contracting debts. If she had any
such before her marriage, the bridegroom
was informed of them ; and if
the marriage took place, he himself
became responsible for them. If,
however, he was not informed, the
woman's parents were held responsible.
If the woman had lost her parents, or
if she were a widow, and gave her
[new] husband no information about
such debts, she was liable to be punished
for her deceitfulness by a minor
chief, but the creditor dared not press
his claim upon her [new] spouse,
since it was the creditor's business
to see that the prospective husband
knew of it, as every marriage was
spoken of far and wide before it
actually took place. The failure of
a crop which she had sold beforehand
might bring a woman who
owned land into debt, and she was
unable to work off the debt as the
men could, except by the protracted
process of mat- and basket-making ; so
that in the eyes of the Sakai, this was
a [valid] excuse for her debt " {Z.f. E.
xxviii. 168).
- De Morgan, vii. 421. ^//i'. p. 423.