Page 178 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

been elected to a high office, and later, when his
birth entitled him to be nominated Sultan, his
claims were ignored in favour of junior men. Up
to the age of fifty or more he had passed his life
in poverty, and even in want, and often in open
resistance to such authority as existed. These
strained relations with his own people made him
to the and as his claims were indis-
loyal British,
and the came when
putable, opportunity they might
be satisfied, he at last attained to the position
which was his by right.
I will try to draw the man as he was at this
time. Tall for a Malay, rather fair, with grey hair
and a white moustache ; very broad-shouldered and
a now inclined
thick-set, powerful figure, though
to over-stoutness a firm, upright carriage ; in his
;
face an exceeding hauteur, and in his manner
something more than this the plain evidence of
a masterful and overbearing disposition. The
strength of mind, the obstinacy of character,
in both face and while
were writ large figure;
manner was accentuated a loud
an imperious by
voice and impatient speech, caused to some ex-
tent by the difficulty of understanding one whose
teeth were few, and whose tongue was plainly
over -large.
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