Page 82 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

parts of Perak it is rare to ever meet a Idtah person.
the disease seems to be
Again, speaking generally,
more common amongst the people of Amboina, in
Netherlands India, than those of Java, Sumatra or
the Malay Peninsula. In both cases heredity is pro-
bably accountable for the result, whatever may have
been the original cause to produce the affliction in
certain places more than in others. I can only
speak of my own experience and what I have
for no
personally seen, English authority appears
to have studied the matter or attempted to either
observe Idtah people, diagnose the disease (if it is
search for its cause or to cure
one), attempt it. I
can vouch for facts but nothing more.
In 1874 I was sent in H.M.S. Hart to reside
with the .Sultan of Selangor. Though His High-
record was one of which he
ness's personal might
be proud, for he was said to have killed ninety-nine
men (sd rdtus kiirang sdtu) with his own hand, his
State was not altogether a happy one, for it had
been the fighting-ground of several ambitious young
for some An hideous
Rajas years. unusually piracy,
conducted one of the Sultan's own
personally by
and committed on a Malacca
sons, trading vessel,
had necessitated a visit from the China fleet, and
when the perpetrators, or those who after due
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