The court is an open one, and, to give solemnity
to the proceedings, is held in the portico, Saram-
bi, of the principal mosque. The Indian islanders
are not by nature litigious; and in their poverty,
it is not reasonable to expect that important
rights of property should often be contested among
them. Civil disputes are settled in the inferior
courts rather by a kind of arbitration than by. judicial
process, so that the duties of the superior court,
now described, are chiefly confined to criminal
trials, principally capital offences.
In all important cases the evidence is formally
recorded in writing, and the whole procedure, as I
have frequently witnessed, is conducted with calmness,
deliberation, and decorum. The details are
slow and tedious, but the whole process sufficiently
expeditious.
Peculiarity of local situation and manners has
«riven rise to various distinctions in the distribu- otion of judicial authority. Among the Hindu population
of Bali the Brahmins administer justice.
Among the Malay tribes the peculiarity of their
maritime situation and their commercial habits has
given rise to a peculiar distribution of judicial
authority, which is expressed, in the Institutes of
Malacca, as follows :—“ The authority of the minister,
Bandahara, extends over men in office,—
lords,—sons of nobles of the first rank, and the
royal guards, Biduinda, that of the minister of
police, Tumangung, over the affairs of the country
generally, and over beggars, destitute persons
and orphans;—that of the admiral, Laksimana,
over all maritime affairs, and all the concerns of
the dependent provinces of the state j—and that of
the Intendant of the Port, Shahbandar, over the
affairs of the port, over all merchants, and over all
strangers.” The most remarkable of these is the
authority delegated to the admiral. He is declared
to be “ the king” when at sea, and then to have
the power of life and death. It is singular that this
power is not confined to this superior naval officer
alone, but expressly belongs by law even to the
master of a trading-vessel. The following law,
from the Malacca collection, specifies all the officers
or persons to whom this dangerous power is entrusted
: “ The persons who have the power of
inflicting the punishment of death are the minister,
Bandahara, in the absence of the king, or
within his own particular jurisdiction, (literally his
own river,)—the minister of police, Tumangung,
when engaged in apprehending criminals,—the
admiral, Laksimana, when in the harbour, and he
is disobeyed, or when on the high-seas,-—and the
commander of a trading-vessel when he is at sea,
for he is then as the king. But the authority of
this latter extends only to the great crimes of
taking another man’s wife or concubine, or meditating
to run a muck.”