Some Rembau customary sayings
“Some Rembau Customary Sayings” is a brief note by R. O. Winstedt, C.M.G., D.Litt., published in the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 6, pt. IV (1928), pp. 54–55.
Summary
The note presents five sets of traditional Rembau customary sayings in Malay, each followed by Winstedt’s English translation (p. 54). The first set draws analogies from four animals — the monitor-lizard, lemur, monkey, and frog — to describe different modes of custom, with the monitor-lizard’s way identified as the just one. The second set uses four seeds (sugar-palm, chestnut, coconut, and lime) as analogies for different growth patterns of custom. The third set lists four qualities expected of chiefs: pardon, justice, clemency, and severity. The fourth set is a set of four injunctions concerning secrecy in matters of killing, burial, sale, and hanging. The fifth set distinguishes four types of old men: the chief who weighs matters, the foolish who ape the young, the crabbed who criticize good deeds, and the sycophantic who approve the doings of the rich (p. 55).