The origin and development of the moral ideas

by Edward Westermarck

In the Malay Archipelago native custom punishes theft with a fine, most frequently equivalent to twice the value of the stolen article,[65] or with slavery,[66] mutilation,[67] or even death;[68] and in many islands it was lawful to kill a thief caught in the act.[69] Among the Malays of Perak,[70] Dyaks,[71] Kyans,[72] Bataks,[73] and the natives of Ambon and Uliase,[74] theft is said to be unknown or almost so, at least within their own communities.

[65] Wilken, ‘Het strafrecht bij de volken van het maleische ras,’ in Bijdragen tot de taal- land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 1883, Land- en volkenkunde, p. 109 sq. Crawfurd, History of the Indian Archipelago, iii. 117. Marsden, History of Sumatra, pp. 221 (Rejangs), 389 (Bataks). von Brenner, Besuch bei den Kannibalen Sumatras, p. 213 (Bataks). Junghuhn, Die Battaländer auf Sumatra, ii. 145 (Bataks), 308 (natives of Passumah in Central Sumatra), 317 (Timorese), 339 (natives of Bali and Lombok). Modigliani, op. cit. p. 496; von Rosenberg, Der malayische Archipel, p. 166 (Niase). Worcester, Philippine Islands, p. 108 (Tagbanuas of Palawan).

[66] Wilken, loc. cit. p. 108 sq. Junghuhn, op. cit. ii. 145 sq. (Bataks). Raffles, History of Java, ii. p. ccxxxv. (people of Bali). Forbes, A Naturalist’s Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago, p. 320 (people of Timor-laut). von Rosenberg, op. cit. p. 166 (Niase).

[67] St. John, Life in the Forests of the Far East, ii. 297 (natives of the kingdom of Borneo, formerly). Low, Sarawak, p. 133. Marsden, op. cit. p. 404 (Achinese of Sumatra). Hickson, A Naturalist in North Celebes, p. 198 (Sangirese). Crawfurd, op. cit. iii. 107, 115. Crawfurd thinks (ibid. iii. 107) that the punishment of mutilation was introduced by Muhammedanism.

[68] Crawfurd, op. cit. iii. 115 (Javanese) Kükenthal, Ergebnisse einer zoologischen Forschungsreise in den Molukken und Borneo, i. 188 (Alfura of Halmahera). Marsden, op. cit. p. 471 (Poggi Islanders). Among the Bataks (von Brenner, op. cit. p. 212) and Achinese of Sumatra (Marsden, op. cit. p. 404) robbery is punished with death.

[69] Wilken, loc. cit. p. 88 sqq. von Rosenberg, op. cit. p. 166; Modigliani, op. cit. p. 496 (Niase).

[70] McNair, Perak and the Malays, p. 204.

[71] Boyle, Adventures among the Dyaks of Borneo, p. 235. Bock, Head-Hunters of Borneo, p. 209. Selenka, Sonnige Welten, p. 19. Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak, i. 81, 82, 92.

[72] Low, op. cit. p. 336.

[73] Marsden, op. cit. p. 389. Junghuhn, op. cit. ii. 148.