The times., 1899-10-01

cusing wholly innocent people, and by 9TH
er similar methods the Kings Youths man.
age to obtain enough money 10 enable them
to live In the style which they consider
necessary for their comfort.
The taxation to which the peasant popu-
lation of the country was subjected was of
two kinds, the dues that were collected on
| behalf of the King and the taxes levied by
| the chiefs for their own use. In the first
! place there was the banchi or poll tax,
which every adult male in the land was re-
quired TO pay for the swelling OF the royal
! Golfers. The sum demanded on the east
4, coast was usually one amas, worth two
Mexican dollars, but the executive govern
ment was so slipshod and in land where
4, the seasons melt into one another go i'm
percepdbiy the passage of time is so little
marked, that often two years or more would
elapse before the Kings councillors be-
thought them that il was time 10 again in
fict tax which, theoretically was sup
posed to be payable annually. The chiefs,
who had more urgent need of ready money.
were more careful to impose their own
private poll taxes with regularity, and they
usually made every adult male in their
district contribute q dollar each toward
their support at least once in every period
OF twelve months The second well-recog-
nized tax was the serah, truly Oriental
invention, for under the specious guise Of a
gift from a superior 10 an infeior il brought
much money alike TO the Sultan and his
mobiles. Periodically the King would send
some of his youths upTiver to one of the
great districts with a gift of silk cloths and
other articles of value TO the baron who
ruled there. The Kings messengers bore
word to the chief that the Sultan placed
such value upon the goods in question,
naming figure which was something more
than double their proper value. The chief
at once summoned the head men of the vii
lages Of his district, divided the articles
sent TO him by the Sultan up among them.
told each of them the amount Of cash which
his village was to supply, and sent them
away TO collect it.
He was usually sufficiently wise in his
own generation not only to avoid contrib
uting al all himself, but also to raise the
price of the goods in such a manner as 10
leave fair margin of profit for himself
The hcadmen generally followed an exam
pie so excellent; and in the end the whole
burden was born by the bowed backs Of
the peasants and villages. But the Sui
tan's serah was not the only tax of the
kind which the peasants were called upol
10 pay. Each of the great barons, ana
every one OF the minor chiefs, frequently
sent some small gift, such as handful of
tobacco or a palm-leaf sack of sa t, TO
| some individual in his territory, and keI
for ten, twenty, thirty. or forty dol ars in
exchange. The person TO whom this ex
pensive and embarrassing present was
sent had no alternative but to accept it
with effusion and alacrity lest some worse
thing should befall him. In addition to
the taxes which ! have named, there were
the import and export duties. The Sultan
levied a tax OF 10 per cent in money or in
kind upon all the things which entered his
state Many articles necessary to the
tives were royal monopolies, and were
sold TO the people at fancy prices. OF
these, salt, tobacco, and kerosene oil were
those which most irked the Kings sub
lects.
Below the villagers were the slave debt
ors. These people were free villagers, or
the descendants of free villagers, who had
borrowed a little ready money from their
wealthier neighbor. and had pledged them
selves. their children, and all who might
come after them as security for the loan.
They usually owned land and other prop
er1y, and were treated by their fellows as
though they were still free. But they
were bound to render gratuitous service TO
their creditor whenever they were called
upon 10 do so, and until the amount of the
original debt was discharged in full they
continued TO incur this liability, years of
patient labor having no power to reduce
the sum OF their Indebtedness. Real slav-
sry. however, did exist in the Malay Pc
i4ns4Is. the practice of making slaves of
foreigners who had been purchased or
captured in the war having been intro
duced by the Arabs.
These unhappy people who usually occu-
pied the position of slaves of the Malays
were generally either negroes who had
been purchased in Arabia by those who
had made the pilgrimage to the Holy City,
or else were members of the aboriginal
tribes Of the peninsula, the Sakai. or the
Semang, who had been captured in some
raid. Slaves thus won by war or purchase
were regarded by the Malays as the mer-
est chattels man who slew one of them
was only liable to pay the value OF the
murdered man to the owner.