Sarai

“ Saraist, a particular rite of devotion, I. 123. Sarang, the world of human beings, according to the Sipasians, I. 87. Sarapréma, a state of beatitude, II. 95. Sarat, bridge of judgment of the Muhammedans, I. 285. Sardah, “primary genus,” I. 324. Saríra, “body,” II. 204, 205. Sarosh (Mobed) , son of Kaivan, son of Kamkar, his lineage—conduct, I. 113 —his works, supposed miracles, 114. —causes rain to cease, phantoms to appear, 116. Sarsash, a descendant from Zardusht, I. 232. ”

“ Before night I arrived at Saraburi, the chief town of the province of Pakpriau, and the residence of the governor.
SARABURI.
Saraburi is a place of some extent, the population consisting chiefly of Siamese, Chinese, and Laotian agriculturists; and consists, like all towns and villages in Siam, of houses constructed of bamboo. They peep out, half hidden among the foliage along the banks of the river; beyond are rice-plantations, and, farther in the background, extensive forests, inhabited solely by wild animals. ”

“ The little Princesses were quite dazzled by the golden saree, and running home said to their mother, “That young Rajah’s wife has the most beautiful saree we ever saw. It shines like the sun, and dazzles one’s eyes. We have no sarees half so beautiful, and although you are Ranee, you have none so rich as that. Why do you not get one too?”
When the Ranee heard about Parbuttee Bai’s saree she was very eager to have one like it; and she said to the Rajah, “Your servant’s wife is dressed more richly than your Ranee. I hear Parbuttee Bai has a saree more costly than any of mine. ”

“ In a country like Sarawak, peopled by Easterns of so great a diversity of races, customs and ideas, an union of the people for their common weal is an impossibility. For them the best and only practical form of government is that which 424they now enjoy, a mild and benevolent despotism, under a Ruler of a superior and exotic race, standing firm and isolated amidst racial jealousies, as no native Ruler could do, and unsuspected of racial partiality; a Ruler upon whom all can depend as a common friend, and a Ruler who has devoted his life to their common welfare. ”

“ The condition of the Sarawak Government was now serious, and surrounded with difficulties. The revenue was gone. There was not a shred of a document extant to tell the tale of former times. So complete was the ruin that the Rajah had to wear native costume, which he borrowed here and there.
But there was a bright spot amid the gloom, in the devotion of the natives; their sympathy, their kindness, their entire willingness 203to do what they could, are all balm to a wounded spirit. We have lost everything but the hearts of the people, and that is much to retain. ”

“ No one can assert that it is possible to find a man with greater qualifications as a ruler of natives or with a greater knowledge of Bruni and its people than the Rajah of Sarawak, or one whose counsel would have greater weight with chiefs and people, to whom the task of reforming and regenerating that country might with wisdom have been entrusted. ”

“ The Kumharsen Serai is the great four-square sink of humanity where the strings of camels and horses from the North load and unload. All the nationalities of Central Asia may be found there, and most of the folk of India proper. Balkh and Bokhara there meet Bengal and Bombay, and try to draw eye-teeth. You can buy ponies, turquoises, Persian pussy-cats, saddle-bags, fat-tailed sheep, and musk in the Kumharsen Serai, and get many strange things for nothing. ”

“ However, joining close together, they formed an impenetrable phalanx, and fighting bravely, they bore down all opposition, and gained the top of a hill, on which stood an old deserted monastery, into which Herbis and his men retired, and defended themselves behind its walls. Abu Obeidah, knowing nothing as yet of Saïd and Derar’s having moved from the places where he had posted them, when he saw with what undaunted courage these men fought, imagined their retreat to be feigned, with a design of drawing the Saracens out of their lines. He therefore commanded his own men not to pursue them. ”

“ The country is traversed by fine rivers. The Rejang, four fathoms deep two hundred miles from the mouth, the Batang Lupar, and the Sarawak are the largest, and the great highways of the country; along the banks of which are [241] cultivated clearings and Dyak villages, but beyond these extend dense jungle which even clothes the sides of the mountains. Besides the before-mentioned rivers are many smaller ones which are still noble streams—the Sarebas, Samarahan, Sadong, Lundu, etc. It is indeed a well-watered country, and only requires the industry of man to develop its riches. ”

“ They fought bravely, and handled the Saracens so severely, that Mesab Ebn Adi, who had been present in most of the battles fought in Syria, said, that of all the men he ever beheld, none behaved themselves better, or stood closer to it, than those Greeks which were then with the governor. It was he that rode and gave notice to Abu Obeidah, who no sooner heard it, than despatching Saïd at once with an hundred archers, commanded Derar to support him. ”

“ The besieged, sallying out, made so good a day’s work of it, that the Saracens had little reason to boast of their success. Now there happened to be present a great man among the Arabs, who was a person of extraordinary sagacity and penetration, and had himself many times commanded an army with good conduct and success. Having well considered the strength of the place, and the courage and resolution of the inhabitants, he told Abu Obeidah privately, that if he expected to conquer Hems, he must use stratagem, rather than force. ”

“ I will quote the Sarawak Gazette of September 1, 1894: ‘Some months back a most unaccountable scare took possession of the Asiatic population of Sarawak Proper—Malays, Chinese, Dyaks and others being similarly affected. It was at first rumoured that the Government required human heads to place under the foundations of the new high level reservoir at the waterworks, and that men were sent out at night to procure these.... Other equally absurd stories followed and were fully believed, many natives going so far as to assert that they had met with these head hunters about the native town at night. ”

“ But considering the past history of Sarawak, and bearing in mind how well that country has since done without extraneous aid, it would seem to have been a pity that Sarawak ever attracted the attention of England, and that the Rajah ever sought for encouragement or protection there. Sarawak has stood the test of nearly seventy years as an independent State, and continues its prosperous career, without owing anything to any one, and requiring only to be let alone. ”

“ Sāri, a word often occurring in the composition of proper names, and is fancied by the natives to convey the idea of flower, beauty, ornament, young woman. Thus at the courts of the native princes, you sometimes hear of the Pagĕr Sari, which means: the fence of flowers, by which is implied the collection of handsome young woman, who surround the person of the Sovereign. CLOUGH does not give Sari in this sense, and yet the word is evidently of Sanscrit origin ”

“ Moawijah, at that time lieutenant of Syria, wrote to Othman, who thereupon sent for Abudar to Medina, and put him into prison, where he continued till his death, which was but the year after.
But this was only the beginning of troubles to the caliph, for the Saracens grew every day more and more disaffected. Factious and uneasy spirits, when once they have begun to disturb a government, will never rest till they are either themselves entirely crushed, or else succeed in obtaining their ends. ”

“ Gomez and his family; some came to me—Sarah, Fanny, and Betsy, a baby whom I gave out to nurse. Poor little Sarah had a very scarred face from a burn, but she was a bright, clever child. Fanny was better-looking, but more heavy and less impressible. These two girls married native catechists in course of time. I trust they are doing some good among their own people.
In the year 1862 some little captives fell into the hands of Captain Brooke, then ruling at Sarawak. They came from Sarebas, and one of them had been wounded by a spear, though he was only a tiny [61] boy of four years old. ”

“ The Rajah wisely gave way to what has since proved to be the better judgment of his nephews, and he wrote to the Tuan Muda, "as my views for Sarawak are at an end, and as we are now to run the risk, with a rational prospect of success, to sustain the Government I will loyally and cheerfully work to falsify my own convictions. Time brings changes, and may work upon the British Government. ”

“ As temples were particularly erected upon such places, these eminences were often denominated Sar-On, from the Deity, to whom the temples were sacred. The term Sar was oftentimes used as a mark of high honour. The Psalmist repeatedly addresses God as his Rock, [274] the Rock of his refuge; the Rock of his salvation. It is also used without a metaphor, for a title of respect: but it seems then to have been differently expressed. The sacred writers call that lordly people the Sidonians, as well as those of Tyre, [275] Sarim. The name of Sarah was given to the wife of Abraham by way of eminence ”

“ A distinction must be made, which it will be as well to again note here, between the Malays of Bruni and those of Sarawak, in other works described—the former as Borneans, and the latter as Siniawans. They are very different in appearance, manners, and even in language. There are not many Brunis in Sarawak now. Most returned to their own country with Rajah Muda Hasim when he retired there in 1844, and others drifted thither later. All the Malays in Kuching, except a sprinkling of foreigners, are Sarawak Malays, the descendants of the so-called Siniawans. ”

“ With such knowledge of administrative systems in the tropics as may be gained by actual observation in almost every part of the British Empire, except the African Colonies, I can say that in no country which I have ever visited are there to be observed so many signs of a wide and generous rule, such abundant indications of good government as are to be seen on every hand in Sarawak. ”

“ I thought that some interest might be felt in the story of a life such as mine has been for the last sixty years, coupled with an account of the institutions, manners, and customs of the inhabitants of Sarawak, and especially of the way in which we have always treated the native population, finding much profit by it, more in kindliness and sympathy than in a worldly point of view, by making them our friends, and I may say associates, though they are of a different creed and different colour ”

“ The Saracens were immediately alarmed. In the tumult, Ahmed Ebn Ased was just going to put his hand to his mouth, when Abu Obeidah struck him a good blow with a truncheon, and gave him a hearty curse into the bargain. The poor man started up on a sudden, and like one seared out of his wits, snatched up a tent-pole, and ran and charged the enemy, scarce knowing where he was, till he was got in the midst of them. The Saracens, surprized in this disorder, with much difficulty beat back the besieged, who nevertheless carried off some prisoners and plunder. ”

“ In a little time their hearts ached, when they saw the Saracens appear with a formidable army, flushed with success, and enriched with the spoils of their countrymen and neighbours. Amrou Ebn Al Aas led the van, consisting of above nine thousand horse. After him came Abu Sofian with two thousand; then Serjabil Ebn Hasanah (who was one of Mohammed’s secretaries when he wrote the Koran) : after him arrived Omar Ebn Rebiyah. Kaled marched in the rear, and brought up the rest of the army under the standard of the black eagle. ”

“ Behind every tree and rock a Saracen seemed to be hidden, and in a moment the whole pass was alive with men in mortal strife.
Surely never in any fight were greater prodigies of valour performed than those of Roland and his comrades. Twelve Saracen kings fell before their mighty swords, and many a Saracen warrior was hurled down the cliffs to pay for the lives of the men of France whom they had trapped to their death. ”

“ The English ships were left, the Albatross at Sarawak, and the Royalist to guard the entrance of the Batang Lupar River, into which the Sakarran and Sarebas Rivers débouche; but their boats, and nearly all the officers, accompanied the fleet, and the steamer Nemesis went also. On the 24th of July they left us, as many as eighteen Malay prahus, manned by from twenty to seventy men in each, and decorated with flags and streamers innumerable, of the brightest colours,—the Sarawak flag, a red and black cross on a yellow ground, always at the stern. ”

“ When we left we could not but draw an unfavourable contrast between the ancient town and the young capital of the adjacent State of Sarawak, Kuching, which we had lately visited. There, under European rule, the jungle has been cleared, and a well built and planned town has sprung up, with good roads, handsome public buildings, an efficient police—all the essentials of civilisation in fact; Malays, Dayaks, and Chinese live and trade amicably together, and all the resources of a rich country are being opened up ”

“ The province of Sarawak, a dependency of the Sultan of Borneo, was governed by an old native rajah, whose authority was menaced by the fierce, head-hunting Dyaks of the interior. Brooke’s chance had come. [90] He boldly offered to put down the rebellion if the Rajah would make him his general and second to the throne. The Rajah cunningly accepted the offer, eager to let the hair-brained young infidel annoy his foes, but with no intention of keeping his promise. ”