isles.” The course of the river is of considerable length, with abundant depth, and
the place which gives name to it is said to be sixty miles distant from its debouche-
ment. At its mouth, however, there is a bar, over which, even at spring tides, there
is no more than twelve feet water. The country through which it passes forms a
portion of the territory of Achin, although chiefly inhabited by the Batak nation, and
on the coast by Malays. The river of Singkel used to be a place of export for benzoin,
camphor and gold-dust.
SINKEP, is the most southerly of the larger islands constituting the Archipelago,
at the eastern end of the Straits of Malacca, and is not above twenty miles distant
from the shore of Sumatra. Its geological formation is the same as that of the
Malay Peninsula and Banca, from which last it is distant about eighty miles. Its area
is reckoned to be 152 geographical square miles. Mines, or washings of alluvial tin
are found and worked in Sinkep, with this peculiarity, that in some situations the ore
exists within high-water mark, and is collected by the Malays by a kind of rude
dredging. The inhabitants are Malay fishermen. Nominally, Sinkep is part of the
territory of Jehore, and consequently subject to the Motherland government.
SIPORA is the name of one of the considerable islands which form a chain from
between the third and fourth degrees of south to the third degree of north latitude,
along the western coast of Sumatra. It lies between the Pagi Islands and Sibiru, its
northern extremity being in south latitude 56', and its southern in 2° 25'. Its
extreme length is about 45 miles, and its extreme breadth about 15, and with its
adjacent islets it is computed to have an area of 1200 geographical miles. The inhabitants
are the same people, and speak the same language as those of the Pagi Islands,
namely, the nation called by the Malays Mantawi. Sipora has been sometimes called
by European navigators “ Good Fortune Island,” which does not very well accord
with its Malay name, that seems to mean “ Pretender, or Simulation Island.”
SIWA, on MAHADEWA, one of the three personages of the Hindu triad, the
destroying power, is not often called by either of these names, even among the
Javanese, but images of himself and of the personages and objects connected with his
worship are frequent in Java, and his sect appears to have been the most prevailing
form of Hinduism throughout the Malay Archipelago, and, to some extent, to have
reached even as far as the Philippines. He is the Batara-guru of the Javanese and
Malays, and the Batala of the Philippine islanders. Batara is an obvious corruption of
the Sanscrit “ Avatara,” and guru is “ spiritual guide.”
SLAMAT, ok SALAMAT (GUNUNG). The name of the mountain in Java
usually called by Europeans that of Tegal, from the district within which it is chiefly
situated. I t is an active volcano, and its height above the level of the sea has been
calculated at about 11,500 feet.
SLAVERY. In Malay there are six different names for a slave, and there is even
one for the “ slave of a slave.” In Javanese, there are also several, but the most
frequent in Malay is flmba, and in Javanese kawula. These, as well as all the others,
are used as pronouns of the first person in addressing a superior. Slavery exists in
every state of society in the Malay Archipelago, and in every country of it, except
Java, where it is not found even in a predial form. This peculiarity has, no doubt,
arisen from an experience of the superior economy of free labour in a populous
country. To breed and maintain slaves was useless when the labour of freemen was
cheaper, and slavery thus came to be naturally extinguished. Slavery, however, still
exists in Bali and Lomboc, equally populous with Java. But this extends only to
parties sold to strangers, and condemned as slaves, for some real or supposed offence,
and slavery, as an institution, cannot be said to exist even among the people of these
islands. In Malacca, when first discovered, all labour appears to have been performed
by slaves, a fact which not only implies a very rude state of society, but also a paucity
of population in relation to the land, or, in other words, comparative high-priced
labour. “ The Malay nation,” says De Barros, “ as they live by trade and no other
pursuit, so are they the most luxurious people of these parts, and the proudest in
their sentiments. All with them is nobility, and this proceeds to such a length that
you will not find a native Malay who will carry on his back his own or any other
man’s property, however much you may offer him for doing so.”-—Decade 2, Book 6,
Chapter 1.
Slaves are of two classes in the Archipelago, bondsmen and bond-debtors,—the first
called, in Malay, tabusan, which signifies the object purchased or redeemed, and the
last iringan, which means a follower, or retainer. The distinction between the slave
and the freeman (m&rdeka), is distinctly enough drawn by the Malays, but yet the line
is not so offensively drawn as to view the first as a mere chattel, for the slave can
possess and inherit property,—purchase his freedom, and has in other respects, his
prescribed rights. The only description of slaves that had not the power of redeeming
themselves, appears to have been those of the king. The real condition of the slave
may be seen from incidental notices of them in collections of the customary laws, and
the following are examples from those of Jehor. “ If a slave cut and wound a freeman,
he shall be condemned as a slave for life to the king.” “ If a freeman wound a
slave, he shall be fined to the extent of one-half the value of the slave, or, if very
poor, in the sum of ten mas.” “ If a slave give a freeman a blow on the face, the
offending hand shall be cut off.” “ If a freeman give a slave a blow on the face, without
any provocation on the part of the slave, he shall be finedj—if poor, five, and if
rich ten mas. But if the slave have been insolent, the freeman in such a case, shall
be held blameless.” “ If a slave, whether- male or female, strike another slave a
blow on the face without offence given by the latter, the offender shall be fined to the
extent of half the price of the slave assaulted.” “ If a slave give abusive language to
a freeman, he shall receive a blow on the face, or have a tooth extracted.” “ If a slave
commit a murder, it shall be lawful for a third party to put him to death, provided
the act shall have taken place in a remote part of the country, where there is difficulty
in securing the person of the offender. But if the crime be perpetrated near a
public authority, the slayer shall be fined five tails and one paa, because he has killed
the slave without leave of his owner or the permission of the public authorities.
However, in this last case, should the slave have been mortally wounded, it shall be
lawful to put him to death”
“ If a freeman kill a slave of the king (ftmba-raja) he shall be fined the value of the
slave seven times seven-fold, and if he cannot pay the fine, he may be either put to
death, or be condemned to be for ever, with his family and relations, slaves to the
king. But, if the slayer of the king’s slave be a man of high rank, he may not be put
to death, but fined to the extent of one kati and five tails, of gold. In case, however,
such great personage shall have killed the slave for some crime, then no notice shall
be taken of the matter.” “ If a slave commit a theft, and is seized and put to death
in the act, the slayer shall pay a mulct equal to half the value of the slave, to be
shared equally between the master of the slave and the magistrate, for the offence of
the slayer consists in not informing the magistrate.”
One circumstance, probably, mitigates the condition of slavery among the people of
the Indian Islands, that the master and slave are almost always of the same race,—
that there is no broad disparity in their conditions, such as exists in civilised communities,
and that the-severe labour of a calculating taskmaster is never exacted.
SLING. In Malay Ali-Ali, and in Javanese Bandreng, although used, does
not seem to have been a favourite weapon with any class of the inhabitants of
the Malay or Philippine Archipelagos. One is tempted to suspect that this may have
arisen from the scarcity of pebbles in countries covered with forest, and of which the
shores consist of mangroves or sand. The blow-pipe for shooting arrows, and
the bow and arrow, the materials for both of which are so constantly at hand, seem
naturally to have taken its place.
SMALL-POX. This epidemic is well known to the inhabitants of both the Malay
and Philippine Archipelagos, and of all the maladies with which they are afflicted, it
has proved the greatest scourge. The Javanese call the disease by the two names,
chachar and planting, both native words, of which the origin is not traceable. By
the Malays it is called chachar and also katumbuhan, the last of these signifying a
sprouting or efflorescence, evidently taken from the eruption. Of the origin of the
small pox, or its first appearance among them, the people themselves, as might be
expected, are wholly ignorant, and from the names we learn nothing, except that
being purely native, they do not point to a foreign origin for the disease. Some
European writers have fancied that it was introduced by the Arabian traders, but had
this been the case, it is probable it would have had an Arabian name, or, at least,
such a name as would give some indication of its being exotic.
SOLDIER. In all rude states of society, every man capable of bearing arms is
alike a soldier, and the military profession, as a distinct one, is, of course, unknown.
This is the case with all the people of the Indian Islands, and hence, there is no name
in the languages of the Archipelago for a professional soldier, except soldado, which
has been taken from the Portuguese. We find, however, words for a warrior, as in