The History of Java, v. 1-2

by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles

9. Hakádang sáksi, i. e. where a person instructs his witnesses what to say previous to their examination.

10. Sábda laksána, i. e. where a thing is stolen within certain premises, and a person residing therein shall refuse to concern himself about the matter. Such person shall be made to make good one-third of the property lost.

11. Hamátang bubúkan, i. e. where a person makes one of his enemy's people his agent. Such person shall be cast.

12. Sídam wárut, i. e. where persons concert in concealing an unlawful pregnancy and in producing an abortion. Such persons shall incur a fine of one hundred and fifty thousand each; the whole of the people of the village where it took place shall each be fined fifty thousand; and every person of the village opposite to it shall be fined twenty-five thousand. All persons, too, who, though living at a distance, are still under the authority of the chief of the village when the thing happened, shall be each fined four thousand. A person of great means shall be fined one million.

13. Tatarápan raja pepáti, i. e. if a person is found dead without its being known how he came by his death, nothing can be done; and it will rest with the Raja to cause the body to be disposed of in any way he may deem proper. If a corrupted dead body, found in a certain village, is first discovered by people of another village, the whole of the persons belonging to the former shall be each fined fifty thousand. Should those persons have endeavoured to conceal the dead body, they shall each, in that case, be fined one hundred thousand. If it is in a field where the dead body is discovered, and that by others than the proprietors of the land, the fine to be imposed upon the latter shall be one hundred thousand. If the dead body is first discovered by a person of the village, and he immediately, by sounding an alarm, summons all the people of that village to see and bear witness thereof; and if those persons afterwards, on examination, deny the fact, the whole of them shall be fined fifty thousand. The favourable testimony of thirteen women, however, will get them off from the said fine.

14. Ngépi g'ni, i. e. a person is wounded and sounds the alarm: many people quickly repair to the spot, but see no appearance of any one by whom the wound could have been inflicted; presently is heard the sound of another alarm, at a different place, by persons who declare they have just wounded a thief who has escaped from them, producing at the same time proof of the fact: in such case the person who first sounded the alarm shall be considered the thief. If there is found a person who has been wounded somewhere, but without its being known where or when, and without there being any thing to lead to a suspicion of his being a thief, nothing can be done to him.

15. Ang'gús súra, i. e. a wound having been proved to have been inflicted by any party who has been prosecuted for the same, if the skin only is broken, the fine to be imposed shall be four thousand. If it is a flesh wound, the fine shall be eight thousand; if a bone be broken or sinews cut, forty thousand: but if the injury done to the wounded party be of such a nature as to deprive him of the means of earning a livelihood, the offending party must, in that case, provide for him.

16. If a person wounds a thief, and can shew marks of his having done so (as a bloody weapon), and if it has been done in the presence of many people, and it has been plainly seen whither the thief betook himself, and an alarm is presently sounded in the place to which the thief fled, and a person then declares he has just received a wound, such person shall be accounted the thief.

17. Wardáya chuménda, i. e. if a person is observed to pass through a village with thieves' tools in his possession, although nothing be stolen, that person shall be accounted the thief.

18. Artísi wádía dan dérma dénda, i. e. the disputes of ministers with ministers, priests with priests, and pundíta with pundíta, must be decided according to the Wartárja sawung eng kerta, i. e. by taking into consideration their different dispositions and natures, as well as their proneness to falsehood.