Page 270 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES
clamations in Kuala Kangsar, and on the following
day I went to see the Raja Bendahara, the third
highest officer in the State. He lived across the
river, and to him and a large crowd of his followers
I read the proclamation, and gave the Bendahara
some copies, which I asked him to have posted.
Amongst the crowd was Raja Alang, who gave
me his version of the amok, and denied that he had
ill-treated the Patani man. I see from the
journal
I kept in those days that I expressed my surprise
that such things were not of daily occurrence, look-
ing to the infamous way in which the people were
treated by the Rajas, to which he replied that he had
done wrong but was now taubat (a reformed cha-
racter), that he wished to go to Mecca (the desire
of all Malays who want to wipe out a bad record
and rehabilitate themselves with and would
society),
be obliged if I would lend him a thousand dollars
for the purpose !
On the 3rd November I distributed the proclama-
tions in villages between Kuala Kangsar and Larut,
and in the afternoon went with Raja Mahmud and
one boat up river to Kota Lama. This village had
then, as indeed it has still, the unenviable reputa-
tion of being the most impossible place in Perak.
It was a very large village, and the people in it
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