Chapter II. 

MINANGKABAU. 

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The People. 

According to Minangkabau tradition the kingdom was founded by Alexander the Great. Actually the kingdom of Malayu, which later extended to the present site of Minangkabau, was established by Hindu colonists by the seventh century A. D. The name Minangkabau first seems to have appeared in a list dated 1365 A. D., giving the names of lands and districts in Sumatra which owed tribute to the Javanese kingdom of Madjapahit. 

The folk etymology of the name “Minangkabau” dates from the time during which the kingdom was struggling to retain its independence. The legend relates that at one time the Javanese came with a great army to conquer the land. The chiefs of both sides decided to settle the issue by a fight between two karabau. The Malays thought of a trick, and allowing a calf to hunger for ten days, bound a sharp iron point to its nose and set it free to run full tilt against the belly of the Javanese buffalo. The starving calf in thus attempting to obtain milk killed its adversary. In commemoration of this event the Malay conquerors named their land and people “Minang Kabau” after the conquering buffalo. The story is still fully accredited among the people, and the karabau is the symbol of national unity. 

In a more prosaic manner. Van der Tuuk derives the name from “pinang kabhu”, an archaic expression which means “original home”. This derivation seems the more likely, since Minangkabau was in fact the cradle land of the Malays. While about one and a half million Malays have remained in Minangkabau proper, an equal number migrated in Hindu times to Malacca and other coastal places of the archipelago. These Malays, often called the deutero-Malays, have adopted a patrilineal form of family. Their language is slightly different, at the present time, from that spoken in the home land, Minangkabau. 

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In the fourteenth and fifteenth century the ancient kingdom of Minangkabau covered the whole of central Sumatra. This kingdom was divided into three parts: the three “luhaks”, the three “rantaus”, and the eight “babs”. To the luhaks, or districts, belonged Tanuh Datar, Agam, and the Lima-puluh (15 towns). To-day these districts form the environments of Fort van der Capellen, Fort de Kock, and PajaKumbuh. These three luhaks formed the kernel of Minangkabau. The three rantaus, states, stood in loose relation to the central province, although they recognized the supremacy of the maharadja of Minangkabau. These were: Rantau Kampar, Kuantan (Indragiri), and Batang Hari. Once every three years the ruler visited these provinces. The eight babs, the entrances and exits to the kingdom, were the large seaports: Padang, Priaman, Indrapura, Djambi, Indragiri, Siak, Painan, and Benkulen. The connection of the babs to the luhaks, or central provinces, was very loose, and at an early date they became entirely disconnected from the central kingdom. 

In the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the Dutch came to Sumatra, Minangkabau was already on its way toward complete disintegration. The kingdom at this time was composed of a collection of petty rajahs who ruled over Lilliputian village states, or negari. The overlord ruler at Palembang, the Jang di Pertuan, was a mere figurehead. In 1680 when King Alip died without leaving any direct heirs, the kingdom was divided into three parts. In the nineteenth century the rule of the ancient kingdom came entirely to an end, the Padri rebellion giving it its final death blow. 

It is impossible to give an exact date for the introduction of Mohammedan law and customs into Minangkabau. According to Willinck, Mohammedan Achehnese pirates roved the coast and upon occasion penetrated into the interior as early as the last half of the fourteenth century. While the middle of the sixteenth century is the date usually assigned for the introduction of Islam, yet Willinck claims that a great part of the Highland still was unconverted in the later part of the eighteenth century. In the beginning of the nineteenth century Mohammedan priests (the Padri) became discontented with the pagan state of the country and resorted to force, killing and enslaving all who resisted the introduction of the strict Mohammedan law. Nevertheless the people persisted in maintaining their matrilineal adat and merely made formal and outward concessions to Moslem promptings. In matters of religion, however pagan they remain at heart, they make pretence of Mohammedan public ceremony and prayer. The social and political organization of the people at present is a bewildering intermixture of pagan matrilineate, Hindu and Mohammedan patrilineate, all functioning under Dutch rule. 

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The Economic Life. 

Houses. — Minangkabau in Hindu times was divided into village states or negari (from the Sanskrit nagara, city). All of the negari have fixed boundaries supposed to have been established by the first settlers, either consisting of natural features, such as rivers, trees, or large stones, or artificial landmarks. Formerly all the inhabitants of a negari knew these landmarks and considered them sacred. Wars never were fought for the purpose of land seizure, nor could the boundaries be altered, even with the consent of the land owners. 

The town itself, in previous days fortified with hedges, walls, and even moats, is the only inhabited portion of the negari. The town here, as among the Bataks, is called kota. Evidently the word for town, as well as the method of defence, was borrowed from the Hindus. In Sanskrit the word kuta means a fortified place. This type of fortification is common in Assam and Western Indonesia, but lacked military justification in Minangkabau. The pa, or fortifications of the far off Maori of New Zealand, were built along somewhat the same model, but may have had a separate origin. 

The first settlers in a kota, belonged to a single family division, or kampueng. The Malay word kampong, now invariably used for an Indonesian native town, thus originally had genealogical rather than territorial significance. 

The Minangkabau town consists of a group of family houses (rumah kumanakan) and rice granaries. In each town there is a council and communal house (balai) and a mosque. The balai serves as sleeping quarters for the youths above the age of eight. 

In the Highlands a single family house (rumah-kamanakan) sometimes lodges seventy to eighty persons descended from the same ancestral mother. The house itself is built on piles and is of oblong shape. The roof projects over a long front balcony, is saddle-backed, and decorated with buffalo horns. Stone steps lead up to the front of the house. The back part is fashioned out of small rooms (bilie). These are separated from one another by planks, bamboo, or cloth, and serve as sleeping quarters for the married and marriageable girls. The fore room (tangah rumah) contains a large fireplace and serves as a communal family room, often also slept in by the children and the unmarried. The space beneath the floor of the dwelling lodges the domestic stock, consisting of karabau, cows, horses, chickens and ducks. In general the buildings are made of wood and bamboo, various sorts of leaves being used for the roofing. 

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The house furnishings and utensils are simple. Iron and copper pots and pans are used in the preparation of food. Large and small baskets are woven from bamboo, rotan, or pandanus leaves as receptacles for rice and other objects. Mats serve the dual purposes of beds and chairs. 

The rice is stored in granaries alongside the dwelling place. Each village likewise has a tabuah house in which is kept the large drum, tabuah. This is fashioned from a hollowed out tree trunk and is used to summon the people on special occasions. The balei, or communal house, is used chiefly as a council house by the chiefs and secondarily as communal sleeping house for the unmarried. 

The market (pasa) plays a large role in Minangkabau life. The market place is situated on a large plain and is frequented during the week by those who wish to buy or sell. 

Graves are situated in the village proper, often in the house plots. 

Clothing. — The clothing of the Minangkabau varies greatly. When the men are at home or at work in the field, they usually wear nothing more than sarongs, and short trousers reaching to the knees. 

A man, fully attired, wears a head cloth, a jacket, a sarong, a girdle and a pair of trousers. The chiefs on state occasions wear gold plates set with jewels in their girdles. 

Weapons. — Among the weapons which are in use among the Minangkabau are European hunting fire-arms, and a great variety of cutting weapons, as krises, lances, swords, daggers, &c. These are native made and very elaborately decorated. A form of sling (umban tali) is still in use. It is made of rope and is used for killing cattle in the field. 

Musical Instruments. — The Minangkabau musical instruments include gongs, drums, small flutes and a peculiar model of a three stringed violin. The instruments are used to accompany dances. In the Highlands only the men dance, but in the bordering regions both sexes join in. 

Industries. — The Minangkabau people are chiefly engaged in agriculture, trade, especially cattle trading, industries, hunting and fishing. 

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Breeding of animals is less well developed than agriculture, yet of some importance. Buffalo, horned cattle, horses and goats are raised. The people use the buffalo (karabau) both as draught animal and for their milk and meat. 

The chief industries are spinning, weaving, lace making, the weaving of mats and baskets, the preparation of silk, washing for gold, cloth dyeing, and pottery. These are especially women’s work. Rope making, paper manufacture, carpentry, boat building, wood cutting, decorating and painting wood, mineral mining, smithing, lead pouring, and candle moulding are especially the work of men. Sugar manufacture, chalk making, and the preparation of gambir and tabacco and oil mining are engaged in by both sexes. 

A half century ago the spinning wheel and the hand loom were to be found in every house. Nowadays, however, the natives buy the cheap American and European cotton goods. Silk industry is of recent importation from Europe. A variety of paper formerly was made from pounded leaves. 

The wet and dry rice fields are worked together by men and women. When cattle are scarce or not to be had, the woman has to work the fields by hand. The man has to lay fences around the field, do the house building and keep it in repair, plant his tobacco, make his fishing utensils and boats, do most of the fishing and all of the hunting, gather wood and brush products in the jungle, and sew the clothing. The woman plants the sugar cane, works on the house garden, and catches crabs and fish in the swamps. She does all of the house work, takes care of the children, cooks, grinds rice, weaves, spins, and prepares palm leaves for the roofing. 

The chief who is paid by the government no longer works in the field, and still less do the native chiefs where the local adat is in force. Those also who have a smattering of Mohammedan letters deem themselves too important to work in the swampy rice fields. Preceded by their mothers and their sisters, who carry the heavy loads on their heads, they wander marketward in ornamented clothing, carrying nothing else than bird cages with their favorite doves carefully protected from the heat of the sun by coverings of colored cotton cloths. 

In spite of the nominal “matriarchate” Van Hasselt claims that the women really are the servants of the men. They not only prepare the meals for the men in their family, but they also serve them first, they themselves eating later with the children. 

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Society. 

Government. — The government of Minangkabau is essentially tribal rather than territorial, and the actual rulers of the land are the sib (suku) heads, the datuq nan berampè. These heads, as will be explained presently, receive their orders from lower family councils and therefore are representatives rather than governors. 

Nominally, in Hindu times, the independent village states, or negari, formed one nation with one language and one ruler, the Jang di Pertuan. Actually, this radjaship was utterly foreign to native concept and never integrated into the Minangkabau adat. While in Minangkabau exogamy and matrilineal succession are the rule, the radjas always married within their own family and the eldest son succeeded his father to the throne. 

The only authority the radja had was that of intermediary in the petty wars fought between the negari. When such a war had lasted a long time without a decisive victory, the radja sent a messenger with a yellow umbrella to the struggling negaris. This emblem was planted on the battlefield for the purpose of establishing peace. If both parties continued the struggle, however, the radja did nothing further in the matter. He had no army to enforce his power, nor did he try to arbitrate. 

The Hindu line of radjas appeared satisfied with the honor paid them, and the taxes. They were kings without soldiers: the poorest pretense of monarchs the world has known. With their disappearance, the actual government of the negari went on quite as before. 

While, then, the negari is the autonomous state, actually this concept also is apt to be misleading. For in each negari there has to be representatives of the four sibs (suku), and the heads of these furnish the highest council. The sibs, in fact, could function equally well without the negari, which is but the Hindu idea of territorial government superimposed upon the native genealogical rule. In fact, mere residence within a negari does not furnish a stranger with rights of citizenship; for this he has to be adopted into a sib. 

It is the suku, or rather that portion of a suku which resides in a certain negari, and not the negari, which furnishes the highest unit of government. Unfortunately, the history and significance of the suku is by no means clear. In Malay the word means “leg” or “fourth part”. Evidently, however, the word is original to Minangkabau, since here the suku corresponds to the sib (marga) of the Bataks. The fact that originally the Minangkabau had four sukus no doubt caused suku to have the meaning of “four” among the deutero-Malays. Certainly the word does not necessarily mean four, for the Gajo sib is called either kuru or suku, and likewise in the Lampong district suku is sometimes the name of relatives in a village. 

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The Minangkabau themselves believe the sukus to be of Hindu origin and ascribe their founding to the sons of a mother Indo Djati. Certain Dutch ethnographers, including Willinck and Westenenk, believe that the sukus were founded by the Hindus for governmental purposes. It appears probable, however, that the Hindus found a sib system here, as elsewhere in Sumatra, and made use of it for governmental purposes. 

Originally the four sukus were the exogamous units of Minangkabau. They again were divided into two sections, or moieties, called laras and named after the sukus of which they were composed. Thus one laras was called Bodi-Tjaniago and the other Koto-Piliang. The word “laras” is Javanese and means “symmetrical” or “harmonious". The presumption is, therefore, that the Hindu- Javanese found the Minangkabau sukus divided into two unnamed parts, which they called laras. 

The Minangkabau people have two traditions concerning the laras. According to the first, these moieties were instituted in legendary times for the purpose of preventing incest, and later split up into the four sukus. According to the second tradition the laras were instituted as territorial divisions from which the present negari have arisen. 

At the time of the conversion of Minangkabau to Mohammedanism the laras already were territorial units, each with slightly different adat. Bodi-Tjaniago had the milder criminal code of the two. The arrangement of the balais was also different in the two laras; in Bodi-Tjaniago the flooring was level so that all the chiefs sat at the same height, while in Kota-Piliang certain chiefs sat on an elevation. 

At the present time the four original sukus have split into a large number of smaller exogamous units, each bearing its own name. Some authorities state there are twenty-four of these units, while others claim twenty-seven. The divisions of a village, the hamlets, also have been named suku, since each division would naturally be inhabited by one genealogical family and hence acquire a suku nomenclature. Thus, if a village is inhabited by four of these “large families”, it would be said to have four sukus or quarters. 

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The actual smallest indepentent unit of government in Minangkabau is the sa-buah-parui, which consists of all those who have descended from a common female ancestor. The sa-buah-parui, then, comprises the children, their mothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmothers, grandaunts and granduncles, usually up to the fifth generation. “All those who have the same dwelling district and the same tomb, the same dwelling place and rice fields.” The sa-buah-parui lives in a section of a village and has over it a chief or panghulu ( 1 on chart) . The chief is chosen from the male relatives of the oldest woman of the lineage, as the name implies-hulu meaning “to begin” or “the first”. 

The lineage again is divided into branches, or families, called djurai. Each djurai lives in a separate house and is ruled over by the oldest brother of the oldest woman of the house, providing the man be fit for the office. Thus 1 and a are mamaqs of their respective houses B and C. It must be noted that the term mamaq means mother’s brother here as among the Karo Bataks and is Tamil in origin. The head of the house may be simply a mamaq, or, if he also is head of the sa-buah-parui, he may have the title of panghulu. 

The government of Minangkabau rests primarily on two councils, first that of the village panghulus, who meet in the village balai, and secondly on the four heads of the negari sukus, the datuq nan berampè, who meet in the negari balai. While the actual enforcement of law rests with the mamaqs and the panghulus, the executive power is in the hands of the suku chiefs. 

The panghulu has a double function. As a mamaq he is a simple house father, acting upon the advice of his house companions. As a panghulu he is representative of his family in the state. As such he is only responsible to the other panghulus and the suku heads. The panghulu has to take care that his underlings keep the adat and the Mohammedan law (sjarat), or be punished. He is the trait-d' union between his sa-buwah-parui and the suku, and between his family and the negari. He also is the repository of family traditions. He sees to it that the members of his family perform their appointed tasks: the making of roads, building of balais or mosques, &c. He is also responsible for the fidelity with which the mamaqs under him perform their tasks toward their various djurai. 

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The panghulu has the duty of bringing the demands of his family to the attention of the suku chiefs and to the other panghulu when they are sitting in council. If he fails to act as just representative, his family may complain over his head, and he may be displaced or even cast out of his family. 

The panghulu always must be informed of everything that happens within his family among the anak-buah (members of sa-buwah-parui) . No child can be born, no death occur, no marriage contracted, but the panghulu must be informed of it. No contract can be closed by his anak-buah, no money given out, or land given in lease, no important act of trade, but that he must receive word. He keeps account of the harto pusako (the communal property) and the harto pantjarian (the individual property) in his family. Not alone does he know the affairs of his own family, but he also knows the internal history and the anecdotes of the other sa-buwah-parui in the negari. When he becomes aged and feels that the end of his life is close at hand, he hands over these traditions to his younger successors. 

The panghulus possess no executive power but are mere representatives of their families. Executive power rests alone in the hands of the suku chiefs. But these act more as advisors than as law makers. They also receive their orders from below and are unable to do anything of their own initiative. 

Several important points must be noted in this system of government, which is the most truly democratic form which could be devised. 

1. The real sovereignty of the state rests with the individual sa-mandehs or families. A mamaq never forms decisions on his own account: important questions first are discussed in each household under the direction of the Indua, the oldest woman of the house, and then debated among the masculine members of the family and the mamaqs who carry out their orders. 

2. All decisions must be merely interpretations of the dual constitution, the native adat and the Mohammedan law. 

3. All decisions must be arrived at by unanimous vote. In Minangkabau there can be no tyranny of a majority over a minority. Dissenting members of a council, however, can be cast out of the family or even out of the community. 

4. Minangkabau rule is a true gerontocracy, for the oldest male member of each djurai is eligible for the position of mamaq, the mamaq of the oldest djurai of the sa-buwah-parui should become panghulu, and the oldest branch of the suku in the negari should place its panghulu in the negari council.

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This system, then, stresses universal suffrage, security of possessions, and immutability of constitution. It is fastened to the traditions of the past and would be ill-adapted to the vicissitudes of war or commerce. It has maintained the average male above the line of poverty and provoked the immigration of the more energetic. 

Similar to most primitive communities, accession to office is a matter of inheritance — here through the female line — with the proviso that the successor have the proper qualifications. A candidate for the office of panghulu must be normal, both physically and mentally, and must always have conformed to the adat. He must be capable for the position, neither over or under opinionated, and trustworthy. If he be too young, an older relative performs the functions of the office for him. Before a man is “lifted up” to the position, the consent of his family must be obtained. Then the family candidate must be approved by the head of the suku. If the datuq nan berampè cannot agree on the family choice, another candidate from the same line has to be chosen. 

Another primitive factor in the Minangkabau adat lies in the fact that the rewards of office are honorary rather than pecuniary. In the first place, the panghulu inherits an honorary name, galar pusako, which can be freely mentioned in the place of his real and secret name. This honorary name is thought to outdate Hindu times, it cannot be 

altered, and is handed down in the family with the position. Then again the panghulu is entitled to wear special clothing and the kris as emblems of office. He is only treated as panghulu while wearing those badges of office. Finally, the panghulu has a special place of office at festive occasions. 

Both honors and status are pyramided in Minangkabau, and the suku chief receives all the honors and titles of lower positions as well as his own special prerogatives. As mamaq he is simply the house father of the oldest djurai of his family, as panghulu he is an officer of the state in their midst, as datua nan kaampe he is the highest state head in the complex of families forming his suku, and, finally, in conjunction with the three other suku chiefs he forms the government of the negari. 

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Social classes. — Unlike the Bataks, the Minangkabau lay but little stress on social classification. Indeed, before the days of Hindu influence, there could have been no other classification between individuals other than an age distinction. At present, the nobility are called urang bangsa (bangsa from Sanskrit vamça, race). The “nobles” are the oldest families in the community and therefore supply the head officials. Families endeavor to marry their daughters off to other families of equal standing or antiquity. 

Likewise, slavery originally was unknown to matrilineal Minangkabau, although it flourished in the patrilineal communities of Nias and Batakland. In these countries slavery was primarily due to war and debt, institutions which were almost foreign to Minangkabau adat. While Hindu civilization introduced the idea of slavery, it was not until the Padri rebellion that slavery became widespread. 

Property. — Minangkabau property at the present time is divided into two classes: communal property (harto pusako), and private property (harto pantjarian). The word pusako is borrowed from the Sanskrit and means in the original language “those things which serve to sustain life”. In Indonesian pusako means “inherited things”. It appears probable that at one time all Minangkabau property was harto pusako. 

There is no law of testament in the Highlands of Minangkabau, since after the death of an individual his harto pantjarian is simply joined to the harto pusako of his djurai. Even during his life the individual has not full control over his own earnings (harto pantjarian). He has full use of his private property and can enter into contracts concerning it without the consent of his mamaq, but so far as it consists of immovables he cannot give it to strangers or even to his own wife and children. 

The harto pusako may be immovable possessions, such as rice fields, cultivated fields, brush or meadow land, houses, rice granaries, and stables. But it may consist equally well of movable goods, as gold and silver work, costly clothing, weapons, karabau, and cattle. The harto pantjarian likewise consists of both movable and immovable goods. The earnings of the day mechanic and of the merchant are harto pantjarian. The cultivator of a piece of waste land takes the land as harto pantjarian. In short, all the property which a person possesses as harto pantjarian rests on personal labor. 

The oldest harto pusako are known as harto manah and are inherited from the ancestral mother. All the members of the sa-buwah-parui have a claim on this. But the harto pusako which is acquired later belongs to the various branches (djurai). As property becomes harto pusako, only the succeeding, but not the lateral or preceding generations have claim to it. The mamaq is administrator over the harto pusako which belongs to his djurai, and the panghulu is administrator over the harto pusako which belongs to his djurai and the harto manah which belongs to the entire sa-buwah-parui. 

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The property system of Minangkabau acts as a preventative to the squandering of wealth. Yet there are cases where the harto pantjarian is not sufficient, and the harto pusako has to be loaned or rented out. It is only sold, however, as a last resort and with the consent of the entire family. According to the adat the harto pusako can be sold for debts which have been contracted in the following manners : 

1. The cost of burial of a family member. 

2. The cost of marrying out a virgin. 

3. In order to prevent the family house falling into decay. 

4. In former days to pay weregild (bangun) when the slayer himself had not sufficient property. 

5. At the present time a few families are willing to pay the expense of a trip to Mecca for their members out of the harto pusako. 

The harto pusako is divided only when a sa-buwah-parui goes into division. If, however, a daugther section migrates into another negari, it loses its share of the harto pusako. 

Land. — Real estate in Minangkabau is always privately owned by a negari in the first place, and then if cultivated given either to a sa-buwah-parui as harto pusako, or to the individual reclaimer as harto pantjarian. 

Land is divided into two categories: tanah mati (dead land) or jungle land, and tanah hidui (living land) or cultivated land. The tanah mati belongs to the negari, but without being worked it cannot become the private property of families. It belongs to the inhabitants of the negari as a whole, who have the right to gather jungle products and to hunt and fish on it. The tanah hidui consists of wet and dry rice fields, as well as all pepper, sirih, gambir, coconut, and other fields. Cultivated land belongs to the original reclaimer and is inherited as harto pusako by the children of his sisters. 

Cultivated land actually is owned by the negari and the individual families merely enjoy the usufruct. Repeated divisions of the cultivated soil are made by the negari chiefs and no family is allowed to retain more than it needs. In this way an equitable allotment of landed wealth is attained, and there is no danger of estates becoming either too large or too small for economic exploitation. 

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The women of Minangkabau are the chief cultivators of the soil, and through the native system of communistic ownership they control its equitable division by means of their representatives, the mamaqs. Unquestionably it is this factor in the Minangkabau matrilineate which has insured its success and its permanency. 

Criminal law. — In Minangkabau there is a code of criminal law (adat siksa) but no civil law. The lack of a civil code must be attributed to the paternal power exerted by the mamaq. When a family member wishes to enter or leave his negari, or when he wishes to enter into a contract concerning his harto pantjarian, he must consult his mamaq. In cases of dispute concerning the fulfilment of contracts, the mamaq decides on the merits of the case, or the matter may be brought before a higher court, even to the negari chiefs. A family member who disobeys the orders of his mamaq can have his share of the harto pusako withheld. If he wishes to obtain this back, he must conciliate his chief and give a feast. 

The native criminal code has not progressed beyond the law of blood revenge and weregild. In spite of Hindu and Mohammedan influence, the Minangkabau recognize no crimes against the state or a deity. This backward aspect of Minangkabau law is due to the fact that in the matrilineal regime the family is the state. Among the Bataks with their better developed state government treason formerly was the gravest of crimes against the state. 

Since in Minangkabau all crimes offend merely the avenger and his family, money compensation can atone for all misdeeds. The fine, however, paid by the guilty party goes not only to the wronged party but also to the negari chief, who receives the compensation partly due to the fact that he is head of the wronged party, and partly due to the fact that he is an expert in pronouncing judgment. The negari chief does not seek out the criminal, however, but waits until an accusation is brought before him. 

In the case of murder no distinction is made between intentional and unintentional homicide. A distinction is made, however, between the worth of a panghulu and an ordinary man, an adult and a child, a man and a woman, in terms of weregild. 

In spite of the matrilineate, a husband has the customary Indonesian right of killing a guilty pair if they are caught flagrante delicto, and a thief may also be killed if caught in the act. 

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Judgments are made in court on the basis of material evidence (tandos or tokens) and the oath and ordeal. On the basis of tando djehe a case can be brought to court but no conviction obtained. With tando djemo (as footprints, or when the accused was seen near the place of crime), the accused must perform a purification oath. Only tando beti convicts, as a piece of cloth cut from the criminal, or where the accused sold stolen goods under price. 

Since a family is responsible for the crimes of its members, it, through necessity, has the power of evicting black sheep from its bonds (dibuwang hutang). Women, however, are treated as objects and not subjects of the law. They have no executive power and no right of entering into contracts, not even marriage contracts. Therefore they are powerless to commit crime and cannot be cast out of the community. 

Willinck sums up the Minangkabau law by stating that “there is here no real judge, no indictment, and no actual law case”. 

Kinship usage. — Minangkabau kinship terms are divided into three groups: the cognate, the agnate, and terms of affinity. While the last two groups are fairly complete, only the cognate terms are supposed to express actual relationship. This fiction is supported by the local proverb that “a rooster can lay no eggs” and that children owe their existence entirely to the mother, by the fact that only the descendants in the female line live together in the communal house, and by the denial of actual forms of marriage. Minangkabau society in these respects is quite similar to that of the Jowai branch of the Khasi of Assam. 

According to Minangkabau adat, a man neither gains possession of a woman by marriage nor a woman a man. By the payment of a certain price, the woman rents the services of her husband at night. The husband then can sleep with his wife in her bilik, the small sleeping room of the family house, or else with the men in the men’s house. In the daytime, he has access to his own family house but is not allowed to enter further than the tangah rumah, the long front room of the house in which the women ply their work when they are not out of doors. 

The Minangkabau man has no rights over his wife other than to demand that she remain faithful to him. He cannot ask her to make clothes for him, for that is the duty of his mother and sisters. If he obtains any food from her or her family, he is supposed to pay for it. It can even happen that a man and his wife never eat together. 

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The woman, on the other hand, can always demand that her husband come to visit her from time to time and fulfill his marital function. If he wishes to be agreeable, he can aid her in the management of the household and the laying out of rice fields. He also can give her presents from time to time or even a fixed income for her maintenance. But this is all liberality on his part, for by the adat, he is not compelled to any of these obligations. In fact, if he is too liberal in sharing his harto pantjarian with his wife, he is liable to get into difficulties with his own family. 

Marriage is more brittle in Minangkabau than elsewhere in Indonesia, and as soon as the visits of a husband become few in number and the family sees that he does not care for his wife any longer, the marriage is broken off. Then both sides remarry as soon as possible. 

Married couples are rakanan, comrades, to one another. They are spoken of as balaki babini, man and wife, duwo istri, the married couple, and barumah bakanti, house companions. A married woman is called padusi or paradusi, a maid anak gadis, and a widow or divorced woman orang rando or barando. To her husband a married woman is the istri or the bini, the wife; while he is her laki, or to use the more dignified Hindu appellation, her suami. By courtesy the husband is also called the djundjungang, the support, by his wife. Whenever a wife speaks of her husband she calls him ajah or bapa anak hamba, the father of my children. When she speaks to him she calls him ang, older brother, or paq, father, if he has given her children. If he has not, she may call him maq (mamaq). She may also call him tuan, or simply label him by his profession. Whatever she does, she must never mention his name in speaking to him or of him. In like manner, the man speaks of his wife as his bini and addresses her as adieq, little sister, thus comparing her to his younger sister. 

It is interesting to note that teknonomy takes two forms in Minangkabau, each of which has as its object the avoidance of personal names. A man before he has children may be an uncle; in this case he would be called by his wife mamaq si A. If he has children then he is called paq si A. In the same manner the parents-in-law must refer to their son-in-law either in his capacity of uncle or father of so-and-so. However a mother-in-law can address her son-in-law as dawan and the son-in-law his father-in-law as angku. 

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Joking and avoidance customs as well as the laws of incest are not so rigorously enforced in Minangkabau as among the Bataks. They are nevertheless of the same nature. A father may not caress his daughter, nor may brother and sister be demonstrative with one another. The law of the family covers the entire suku, and all suku acquaintances of opposite sexes must be very reserved. On the other hand, men and women of different suku may be very forward in their behavior, especially if they are not married. There is one striking point of difference between the Minangkabau and the Bataks: In Minangkabau boys and girls before they become engaged can mingle freely, but once engaged they must rigorously avoid speaking or meeting each other; among the Bataks an engagement is merely one form of trial marriage. 

Parents-in-law and children-in-law, regardless of sex, are forbidden to be familiar, cordial, or jest with one another. They are not allowed to sit on the same mat or bench or eat from the same board or banana leaf lest their fingers touch. In the same way siblings-in-law of opposite sex never joke, and avoid one another. 

Theoretically the sa-buwah-parui of the husband and that of the wife are brought into no relationship with one another by a marriage between members. Actually, however, marriage has preserved its aspect of group exchange here as among the Bataks. Thus, after the death of one’s wife, it is deemed highly desirable to marry one of her sisters “so that the bond between the two families should not be broken”. It also is considered desirable that a man marry the widow of his deceased brother for the same reason. 

Cross-cousin marriage is not prescribed by the adat, and the kinship nomenclature does not reflect this form of union, yet it is nevertheless the custom for a family to pick out the son of the mother’s brother (anak mamaq) or of the father’s sister (kamanakan bapa) as the most suitable husband for the daughter. In this way the family believes itself assured of having a son-in-law of the same social standing as themselves. 

Marriage restrictions. — Marriage has been shown to be exogamous, and a woman must marry a man not only from a different sa-buwah-parui but also from a different suku. Incest is called sumbang and is punished by disowning. 

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In regard to other restrictions on marriage the Mohammedan law at the present time is followed more closely than the native adat. Thus, while a woman might marry a half-brother from a different father according to native adat, this is seldom done. While in some districts a man is prohibited taking more than one wife, in others certain of the wealthy marry four, according to Mohammedan law, spending a month with each. 

According to Mohammedan custom a man is not allowed to marry two sisters at the same time, a parent-in-law cannot marry a child-in-law, nor a brother-in-law a sister-in-law while the spouse is still living. 

Previously native adat forbade a virgin contracting a marriage with a man outside of her negari and to-day this seldom is done. A woman who already has been married (orang rando) is allowed to marry a stranger. 

Marriage. — As among the Bataks and other primitive peoples, bachelors and spinsters are almost unknown in Minangkabau. A spinster is said to receive the derisive nickname, apa guna, “what is the use?” There is no reason for a Minangkabau woman to remain unwed, for her family finds a husband for her while she is still a young girl; later when she becomes widowed or divorced she seeks her own mate. In a later marriage a woman must receive the consent of her mamaq in order that she may be assured that her spouse will be welcomed in the family house, but the man need consult no one. 

Only the first marriage is deemed of social importance in Minangkabau. This is contracted without consulting either the boy or the girl by the two djurai concerned in the matter. Boys are usually married off at about the age of 15, the time of their circumcision, and girls at the time of their first menstruation. In spite of the social importance attached to this early marriage, it seldom has any lasting effect, and a woman not infrequently has changed mates five or six times before she arrives at the age of twenty. If the Batak woman may be said to enjoy her freedom before marriage, then her Minangkabau sister has her opportunity in post-nuptial days. 

After all the older brothers and sisters of a girl have been married off, the family decides on a suitable husband for this daughter and employs go-betweens to sound the feelings of the boy’s family. If the consent of the latter family is obtained, the family of the girl sends small pledges (tandos) and receives tandos in exchange. The heads of the sukus are informed of the engagement and it is made public. If the affair be broken off later, either before or after marriage, the tandos are returned. Tandos are exchanged at the time of any contract with the same purpose as at a betrothal. Naturally if one party breaks a contract, the other party can claim possession of both tandos, wh ile if a contract is broken by mutual consent, tandos are returned. 

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Four or five days after the exchange of tandos the family of the girl again sends presents and receives chickens, earthenware, and cloth. This is called the release from the selo (selo, sitting with crossed legs). After this the two families can be more familiar with one another. If these presents were not given, the children born of the marriage could demand help later from the family of the husband. 

Engagements usually last but a short time. They may, however, last a year or two if the engaged couple is too young to marry, when important preparations have to be made for the wedding, or when an additional wing has to be put on the family dwelling. If the engaged couple are children and the engagement is of some duration, they live alternately in one another’s house although they are not allowed to come into contact. This is to maintain the bond between the two families. 

The actual wedding ceremony is conducted with great festivities and feasting, especially if the bridal pair come from prominent families. In pre-Islamic times the mamaq of the woman and the mamaq of the man performed the final ceremony. Now it is usually the father of the woman who acts as her wall (guardian) and “gives her away”. As in southern India and everywhere in Indonesia the central act of the wedding ceremony consists of the bride and bridegroom eating together. Contrary to Mohammedan law the greater part of the expense of the wedding is borne by the family of the bride. A symbolic offer of a bride-price in the form of a silver token is usually made in deference to the regulations of Islam, but actually it is the groom who is bought, or, according to Willinck’s phraseology, “rented”. This is done by means of the dowry, which amounts to from 25 to 60 guldens and which is brought from the house of the bride to that of the groom. This small amount is called “ame” and is given back at the time of a divorce. 

Delayed consummation of the marriage occurs in the district of Agam, a custom which is also found in Java, Atjeh, and elsewhere in Indonesia. The bridegroom spends the night following the wedding with his wife in her bilik and there chats with her, but etiquette demands that a pair of the wife’s elderly relatives also be present and that the newly-married couple enjoy no great amount of familiarity. The wife in fact acts quite coldly toward her husband for five or six nights after the wedding, and when the husband takes his departure in the mornings he has to do so without attracting attention of the other occupants of the house. 

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A mock ceremony of bridegroom capture takes place the first morning, in a manner somewhat similar to that of the matrilineal Garos of Assam. After the husband has chatted with his bride all night he goes secretly to his own home in the morning. But a deputation of young men are sent by the family of the bride to round him up, and they bring him back by pretended force to the home of his bride. This ceremony is held in imitation of the actions of a bull, who not being used to a strange stall runs away and has to be led back. Among the patrilineal Bataks the bride has to be led weeping to the home of her husband; here among the matrilineal Minangkabau it is the husband who has to be led protesting to the home of his bride. 

In Batakland if a family is in danger of dying out a man is married into the family so that there may be male children to inherit the property. In Minangkabau the situation naturally is reversed, and when a family is in danger of dying out, a woman from the same negari if possible is adopted so that her children may inherit. 

Divorce. — The dissolution of a marriage while both parties are alive is called batjarei hiduiq (to separate alive), while dissolution through death is called batjarei tambilan (separation by means of a spade). 

At present, in portions of Minangkabau least influenced by Mohammedanism, divorce is conducted without any formality; formerly this was so in all of Minangkabau. A man simply packs up his things and leaves. He tells the motive to his family and his acquaintances while the woman or her mother tell it to the mamaq. The panghulu has nothing to do with the divorce. If a woman wishes to get rid of a man and has no grounds for divorce, she simply furnishes notice by changing her sleeping quarters. The man takes the hint and ceases coming to the house. 

Childbirth. — During the birth of a child the husband must not be present in the house. The husband and the midwife are supposed to be ashamed of each other, and therefore practice avoidance. The afterbirth is placed in a purse woven from banana leaves and is buried under a certain pillar of the house. 

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Three days after the birth of the child the mother gets up to perform light housework. If she is very weak, however, she is allowed to remain in bed fifteen days. During this time she is not allowed to eat red peppers, root vegetables, sweets, or condiments with her rice. She lives on dried fish, salted dried rice and dried meat. The foods tabooed are supposed to heat the blood; sweets cause pain. No restrictions are placed on the father. 

Treatment of children. — The children are not brought up by any particular member of the djurai but by the female relatives as a group, all of whom have the right of correction and all of whom join in deciding on the child’s career and marriage. The oldest woman of the djurai has the most to say in these matters, together with her male representative, the mamaq. The father displays not the least concern regarding his own children, although he gives them small presents from time to time. In the better families unmarried girls are carefully guarded. 

From the European point of view, the Minangkabau child receives a very faulty education. He is left almost entirely to himself, and at an early age has to devote his energies to the economic pursuits of the household. While still a boy he learns to read and write a little in the Arabic characters. In lieu of actual scientific or literary training, he is taught to acquire manual dexterity and a practical knowledge of animal and plant life. The native industries presently occupy his entire attention, such as the decoration of weapons and household utensils, the carving of buildings and the fashioning of the precious metals. A girl while still young begins to weave and make baskets. 

Puberty ceremonies. — Boys are circumcised and girls incised. Boys have a lock of their hair preserved to be ceremonially cut off at puberty, while girls have their teeth filed before marriage and their ears bored while they are very young. 

Both boys and girls are bathed in the river a few days after birth and are named at this time by the Mohammedan priest (malim). 

Girls arrive at puberty at about the age of twelve or thirteen. No ceremony takes place at this time, but from now on they are carefully watched and no longer allowed to play with the boys. During periods of menstruation (bulan, moon) the women avoid the use of oil in their hair, keep away from men, and bathe twice a day in the river. 

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Boys become of age at fifteen, at which time they are entitled to manage their business affairs and hold office. 

Names. — Children receive their names at the time they are first bathed in the river, at the latest five days after their birth. While the names are actually bestowed by the malim, the parents offer a number of names as choice. This first name is called a “little name” (nama ketek). Later when the boys and girls marry they receive their inherited titles, or little titles (galar ketek), and these satisfy their vanity. Upon the assumption of titles the childhood names are lost. The only real titles are those of the panghulus (gala panghulu) . Names and titles are of Hindu origin, and their meanings are not understood by the present-day people. 

With the assumption of the family title goes the right of part ownership in the family property, such as rice fields. It is therefore just as great an offence to steal a family title as it is to steal the family property. Slaves had no rights to family titles but kept their childhood names. 

The Minangkabau like the Bataks are loath to reveal their names, and it is an insult to ask for the names of elder members of a family. Teknonomy, as before mentioned, is practiced, and a man names himself after his nephews or children, a woman after her children or grandchildren. 

Death and burial. — The dead always are disposed of by burial, and this on the same day as that on which the death occurs. If a man becomes sick at the home of his wife, word is sent to his relatives. If he dies, the body is handed over to his own family. The widow and her relatives have nothing to do with the burial. 

The people have no outward sign of mourning. According to Mohammedan law, the widow must wait four months and ten days, and then if she is not pregnant, she can remarry. The Minangkabau widow, however, waits one hundred days, as the ghost of the dead man is supposed to wander around in the form of a bird in his own dwelling and in hers, for that period of time. Then a big feast for the dead is given and the ghost leaves for soul land, kampong achirat. The widow at this time pays her last visit to the family of the deceased, and they visit the grave together. While no offerings are put upon the grave, household implements, such as mats and baskets, and food, are given as presents to blood relatives. Direct offerings to the dead would be contrary to Mohammedan law. 

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In case a man loses his wife he can remarry at once, as there is no iddah, or mourning period, prescribed. However, he usually waits a hundred days, as his wife is said to be hovering around in bird-like form. 

Children are not very much affected by the death of a parent. If the father dies they remain with the mother. If the mother dies the father can demand one or more of the children. Usually, however, he is content to visit his offspring from time to time. 

The patrilineate and the matrilineate. — A study of two neighboring but opposite systems of government and property ownership in Sumatra furnishes convincing proof that both the patrilineate and the matrilineate have developed from a common form of bilateral family and that in neither case has the system attained full development. Government among the Bataks is entirely in the hands of the men, and yet the voice of a woman is sometimes heard in the council house. Women exert great influence on governmental decisions in Minangkabau, but a woman never can be either mamaq or panghulu. Among the Bataks, women own no property, and they themselves are said to be property, although they can be neither sold nor abused. The Minangkabau women nominally own all the inherited property, but actual title to the property is in the hands of the men; the women have not the legal right to make a contract, not even to dispose of themselves in marriage. Among the Bataks a woman is sold as a commodity into marriage, while in Minangkabau a fine pretense is made of hiring the husband by the family of the woman, yet both cases yield on analysis to a substratum of wife exchange where a woman from one family, sib, or moiety is traded for a woman of the other. Logically the Batak woman should be chaste when sold into marriage, while her Minangkabau sister should merely hire a husband after a long and eventful spinsterhood, yet the very reverse of this situation is the case. Presumably both peoples at one time practiced the common Indonesian custom of prenuptial sexual laxity. Of actual enslavement of one sex by the other, either among the Bataks or the Minangkabau, there is not a trace. The division of labor is similar everywhere in Sumatra to that of Borneo or the Philippines. 

Evidently there has been some force which has created the two opposing regimes in Sumatra; yet this force or influence cannot be sought either in sociological necessity, in the functioning of local customs, or in some accidental or deeply inrooted historical principle such as the levirate and sororate, the division of labor between the sexes, or patrilocal versus matrilocal residence. 

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The presumption therefore lies in favor of historical diffusion of custom. There is strong linguistic indication that perhaps somewhere between the first and second millenium B. C. Sumatra was subjected to direct Dravidian influence, and that certain sociological customs, including avoidance customs and joking relationships, cross-cousin marriage, matrilineal and patrilineal sibs, moieties, exogamy and totemism, were imported from southern India into Sumatra and the Pacific. 

Religion. 

The religious beliefs of the Minangkabau are a mixture of paganism, Hinduism, and Mohammedanism. It sometimes is difficult to decide whether a particular belief is of Hindu or Mohammedan origin. The belief in seven heavens unquestionably dates back to Hindu days, for the Hindus had seven heavens and seven hells. The belief in seven heavens likewise is to be found in the Mohammedan religion, for Mohammed climbed to the seventh heaven. The fundamentals of the soul concept, or animism, however, are native Indonesian. 

Cosmology. — The earth is conceived of as a flat disc resting on the horns of a huge bull. This animal stands on an egg, which is laid on the back of a fish, which slowly swims around on the surface of an immeasurably large sea. Under the sea there is but empty dark space. When some insect has the impudence to pick out a resting place in an ear of the bull, the animal shakes its head and the earth quakes. 

High above the mountains and the woods extends the blue sky vault which hides the beauty of the heavens from human eyes. It is built up in seven layers, each more beautiful and costly than the others, until one arrives at the dwelling place of Allah, the High One. 

The sun is conceived of as a ball of pure fire drawn through the sky by nymphs. Sun and Moon suffer ills the same as humanity, and when they are sick they appear in a dark veil, i. e., an eclipse. 

While Allah the Creator is the Supreme Being, there also are countless other spirits in the universe, both good and bad. The good spirits are called djihin Islam, the bad ibilih, Setan, or hantu. Spirits which appear to man, no matter under what form, are called hantu. 

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Soul belief. — Corresponding to our idea of the soul, Maass states that the Malays of the Archipelago and Malacca have two different concepts and three expressions. 

1. The Njawa (Minangkabau njao) is the soul in the sense of life, life bearer, life principle. This is the real soul which leaves the body at the time of death. This word and concept is the same as that of India proper, and has been introduced into Sumatra and Java. 

2. The Djiura (Minangkabau djio) from the Sanskrit djiva, life principle. 

3. The Sumangat (Minangkabau sumange, Batak sumangot, Mentawei simagere) from the Sanskrit sangat “strong” “very” with an “m” infix. This is the soul in the sense of consciousness, life force, or health. It is this soul which leaves in dreams and sickness, but which usually returns again to the body. 

Toorn has made a special study of the Minangkabau soul concept. He writes; 

“While the njao is regarded as the source of life, the life or the breath; the sumange is called the life force, the life fire, or consciousness. The sumange is that which causes the impression of fear, respect and wonder. It furnishes power, splendor and vivacity. It makes itself apparent in the expression of the face, in the posture and movements of the body. Every healthy man may be called an orang basumange by the Minangkabau, but this usually is said of some one who looks especially strong and healthy, who appears vivacious and alive. If a man looks sickly, or has little or no expression in his face, it is said that his spirit (sumange) is weak, or temporarily has left him. 

“The sumange, as well as the njao, is immaterial. Between the two there exists an inner relationship; but so far as their material container is concerned, the concept concerning them differs. When the njao is gone, the body perishes, but it only is weakened by the absence of the sumange. Only when this permanently leaves the body does all life cease. 

“The Minangkabau himself believes that the sumange is a being, which has consciousness, which possesses a will, which has power to think and feel, and which is entirely independent of the body. 

“The sumange leaves the body either in suffering or in great joy. This going away and returning of the sumange occurs both voluntarily and involuntarily. The voluntary leaving occurs in dreams, when the sumange lingers in places or by objects which have created a deep impression. 

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In some cases the dreamer speaks about the things which the sumange encounters on his travels. From this kind of journey the sumange returns of the free will. It is improper, however, to blacken or dirty the face of a sleeper, as this causes an aversion in the sumange. 

“The forced leaving of the sumange occurs in fright, anxiety, or sickness. Fright may be occasioned by the sudden meeting of one sumange with another, which it did not expect, and which induces it to leave its body. After this the sumange returns of its own free will, after the unexpected stranger is gone. The anxious state of the sumange also may be caused through worry, when the sumange approaches a misfortune. We observe this in a criminal who is being led to capital punishment, and whose palid face and quivering body show that his sumange is gone. Sickness is caused when the evil spirits torture the abstracted sumange. The suffering of the sumange are felt by the entire body. The sumange, in this case, returns either voluntarily or is forced back by the doctor (dukun).” 

Animals and plants, like human beings, have souls (djio). The natives claim that when an animal dies or is killed its soul flies away. But when a plant dies, there is no question of its soul surviving after death. The plant dies, they say. An exception to this rule, however, must be made in the case of rice. Among the Minangkabau, as among all the rice raising people of the Archipelago, the soul of the rice plant receives special treatment. 

Rice Mother. — The Indonesian rice growing people not only distinguish the nature of the rice soul from that of other animal and plant souls, but often give the rice soul the same name as the human soul. The Toradja of Celebes call the rice soul by the same name as the human soul, tawuna. Among the Bataks the rice soul is called tondi, and among the Javanese, Malay, Makassers and Buginese, it is called sumange, sumangat, or semangat. 

It can thus be seen that the rice plant is a thinking and feeling being. Although the rice soul is in every rice plant and in every rice kernel, yet this is especially true for the special plant which is ritually taken out of the rice field. The rice soul is thought to be concentrated in this plant, which is called mother, grandmother, grandfather or uncle. The other rice plants of the field are called children or nephews. 

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The Indonesians believe that the single rice kernels or plants are persons who possess a power which can readily be lost at the time when the rice is cut, stamped, or cooked. For this reason a “mother plant” is chosen, which is distinguished by a rich and powerful force (soul) and which contains the force of the rice field. The Rice Mother also attracts the soul of rice which has been lost to the crop, such as that which has been eaten by birds or mice. 

One often finds that certain specific rites are performed, either before the crop has been taken in or afterwards, which have for their purpose the gathering of the soul of the rice in the field and the bringing of it into the granary. But the general purpose of all the rice rites is to summon the highest good of the rice crop, the soul, and to lock it in the granary. The rites therefore assure a plentiful crop for the following year. 

While the Minangkabau in general have lost the elaborate taboo system common to the people of Assam and the pagan Indonesians, they have retained certain taboos (pantagan) in connection with rice growing. The Rice Mother must not be offended. It is forbidden: 

1. To pull off one’s coat in the rice field and cover one’s head with it. 

2. To draw the body of a woman who has died in childbirth past the growing rice. (The stalks would produce no blossoms). 

3. A woman at certain periods is not allowed near the growing rice. 

4. With uncovered head to uncover the upper or lower portion of the body in the rice field. 

5. The unhulled rice can be brought into the house only by dragging it. It would be dishonored by being brought in otherwise, and would not remain in the cooking utensils. 

6. To speak unchastely in the rice field. The rice would become ashamed and lose its odor and taste. 

Eschatology. — The eschatological ideas of the Minangkabau, and the words used to express these ideas, are mainly Hindu. Mohammedanism came to the archipelago from India and thus acquired certain Hindu concepts, but many of the beliefs no doubt antecede the conversion of the people to Islam. The belief in the weighing of the souls is interesting, as this idea originated in Egypt and came somewhat late to India. Naturally the concept could spread no further than the use of the scales. On the other hand, the judgement by the bridge of the dead is widespread in Oceania, occurring in prominent form in the eschatological beliefs of Fiji. 

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The Minangkabau believe that while the sumange goes away the moment the body begins to feel sick, the njao takes its departure after death. The angel Gabriel mounts with it to the heavens and allows it to look down on the spot where it used to live. Then the angel brings the soul back to earth. The dead still have the power of hearing, seeing, and feeling. Speech alone is lacking. On the way to the grave the stretcher is set down for a few hours on the plain before the dwelling, in order to give the soul a chance to ask forgiveness for all the evil it has done, and to take departure from everything it has loved. Further than this the soul has nothing to do with the body, but goes back to its old dwelling place, where it rests in the garret or on the ridge. The soul of a man visits daily the house of his widow, that of a woman the house of her husband. During the first hundred days after the death the bed and chair of the deceased are beautifully decorated. Nothing must be done which would annoy the soul, and the dead person is spoken of with the greatest respect. 

After the end of the hundred days a death feast is held and the soul takes its departure to the land of the dead. It is believed that the souls must run over a firm knife-edge wire, which is extended over hell fire (called by its Sanskrit name, naraka). The evil fall in, the good arrive at their heavenly abode, sirugo. 

The good souls go to a place in heaven, where there is a big tree (sadjaratu’l-muntaha). This is the racial tree of mankind, and the souls abide there until the day of resurrection. At this time the good will inherit the earth and the evil remain in hell. The duration in hell, however, is not eternal, but the good and bad deeds of the souls are weighed to determine the extent of the punishment merited. The good deeds are called pahala (from Sanskrit phala, service, fruit) and the bad deeds dosa (from Sanskrit dosa, sin). 

Certain of the doctors (dukun) teach an esoteric doctrine of reincarnation for sin. This they doubtlessly learned from Mohammedanized Hindu sources. The reincarnation of the soul takes place gradually and incompletely; for the animal, whether it be tiger, boar or snake, retains certain human body characteristics. This being, which bears the name of djadi-djadian, places himself in the neighborhood of the dwelling of his family, where he receives food, although attempts are made to banish him. 

According to some doctors, the reincarnation from human being to animal, and from this animal into another, occurs seven times, and then nothing remains from what formerly was a human being but earth. According to others, the metamorphosis takes place but once, and after the animal is dead the soul goes to soul land. 

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Doctors. — The Minangkabau doctor is called dukun or urang kapiturunan (turun, to descend, to come down). The dukun is either male or female. The women doctors, however, specialize in childbirth, the incision of girls, and massage. The male dukun’s also have their specialists. Certain ones handle only internal sicknesses, others concern themselves with teeth filing, while still others circumcise or massage. 

Insufficient knowledge has been obtained concerning the training of the dukun’s. In general the position goes from father to son, or mother to daughter. The parent teaches the child orally, there being no written documents or formulae to hand down. The youth learns to gather herbs and witnesses the cures performed upon the sick. At the age of seventeen or eighteen the young dukun starts practicing for himself. 

The dukun is greatly respected by the natives, not alone because of his medical knowledge, but also because of his command of magical formulae (mostly Mohammedan), by means of which he combats the evil spirits. He likewise is summoned to fight witchcraft, and in his capacity of medium, to enter into communication with spirits. 

In spite of his title of kapiturunan, the dukun is a seer rather than a true shaman. Spirit possession is simulated beneath a blanket, but the dukun is not capable of giving a performance in the open, as is his Batak colleague. It is not known whether or not a neophyte dukun enters a vision quest in order to obtain a guardian spirit. 

Toorn, however, states that a Minangkabau native goes into seclusion for the purpose of coming into contact with the spirits, from whom he wishes to learn one or more of the magical arts, as, for example, to make himself invisible. Usually he does this on the top of a high mountain, or in the thickest part of the woods. Here he remains until his wish is fulfilled, usually not longer than seven days. Presumably the prospective dukun undergoes this variety of vision quest. Maass mentions the fact that the dukun is able to see the ghosts of the dead at night. This visionary power is similar to that exercised in Mentawei by the seer. 

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The dukun cures by bringing back the soul, when it has been abstracted by the spirits. When anyone is sick the dukun is summoned, and certain herbs, flowers and rice are prepared by a woman who is not in her periods. The dukun brings these offerings to a lonely high place and burns them in a dish. By this means he summons his friendly spirits (djihins). He then inquires their purpose and urges them to aid in recovering the lost sumange and to bring it back to the dwelling of the patient. The dukun now lies down and is covered with a blanket. About fifteen minutes later his limbs begin to tremble, an indication that his soul has left his body and is on the way to the spirit village. Once there he tells the spirits (this is not heard by the human audience) the reason for his coming, whereupon the oldest of the women djihin, Mande Rubiah, with some of her male and female followers, go to seek the sumange. Sometimes, as in the case of serious illness, the evil spirits demand a sacrifice for the return of the soul, as an armlet or kris. This is given to the dukun. 

If Mande Rubiah does not succeed in recovering the soul, the patient is certain to die. If the djihins succeed in returning with the sumange, the fact is made apparent by the trembling of the limbs of the dukun, who remains unconscious, since his own sumange is still in the village of the djihins. The sound of voices which are heard from under the blanket are said to be the voices of the djihins who have entered the body of the dukun. The djihins command that benzine be burnt, so that the soul of the sick person can see well enough to mount the ladder in the ghost house and partake of a feast. The soul then is escorted by the djihins back into its proper body. 

After all this has happened one usually questions Mande Rubiah concerning further treatment for the sick person. The advice sometimes is given that the patient should bathe for twelve hours, facing one or another of the neighboring mountains. In addition a sacrificial altar (ataran) should be constructed with gifts of cooked eggs, rice, sirih and tobacco. 

The dukun has still another method of curing. The patient, surrounded by his relatives, is placed in front of a curtain. The people are enjoined to maintain a deep silence, and the dukun steps behind the curtain to confer with the spirits. One hears then the voices of the spirits and the voice of the dukun in conference. Finally the dukun comes back to the patient, tells him what has happened, and what is required for a cure, spits on him, and recites a magical formula. In this manner of treatment there is no suggestion of spirit possession. 

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Maass, from his study of the Kuantan-district of Minangkabau, denies that the people in general have any concept of spirit possession, either shamanistic or as a sickness. Only a few, especially those who have been to Mecca, have learnt of the matter from the Arabs. The demons create sickness by tormenting the soul outside the body, not by entering into the person of the sufferer. 

The bull-roarer (manggasieng) is used by the Minangkabau as a means of magically abducting the soul of a woman. This instrument is swung by a jealous lover who has been repelled in making advances. Some hair of the victim is made use of in the charm, and it is thought that the demons will steal the soul of the owner and reduce her to a state of madness.

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Minangkabau. 

○ ALKEMA, B., and BEZEMER, T. J. Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie. Haarlem 1927. 

○ COLLET, O. J. A. Terres et Peuples de Sumatra. Amsterdam, 1925. 

○ JOUSTRA, M. Minangkabau, Overzicht van Land, Geschiedenis en Volk. s’Gravenhage, 1923. 

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○ KOHLER, J. Uber das Recht der Minangkabau auf Sumatra. ZvR 1910. 

○ LEKKERKERKER, C. Land en Volk van Sumatra. Leiden, 1916. 

○ MAASS, a. Durch Zentral-Sumatra. Vol. 1. Berlin, 1910. 

○ VAN EERDE, J. C. Een Huwelijk bij de Minangkabausche Maleiers. TI-TLV 

1901. De Volken van Nederlandsch Indie. Vol. 1. Amsterdam, 1920. 

○ VAN HASSELT, A. L. Volksbeschrijving van Midden-Sumatra. In Midden-Sumatra. Reizen en Onderzoekingen der Sumatra Expeditie, onder Toezicht van Prof. P. J. Veth. Third Part. Leiden, 1882. 

○ VAN DER TOORN, J. L. Aanteekeningen uit het Familieleven bij den Maleier in de Padangsche Bovenlanden. TI-TLV 1881. Het Animisme bij den Minangkabauer der Padangsche Bovenlanden. BTLV-NI 1890. 

○ WESTENENK, L. C. De Minangkabausche Negari. Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitengewesten, bewerkt door het Encydo- paedisch Bureau 17. Weltevreden, 1918. 

○ WILLINCK, Q. D. Het rechtsleven bij de Minangkabausche Maleiers. Leiden, 1908. 

○ ZWAAN, J. P. Kleiweg de. Dc Verfiouding tot de aangefrowde familie in den Indischen Archipel. BTLV-NI 1918. 

○ Articles “Minangkabau” and “Sukus” in Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch-Oost- Indie.

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