Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/127

 LAWS. lis a one be moderately fined as the price of his life. If the woman be aperson of high rank, the mulct is two laksaSy or 20,000 pichis ; if of middling rank, one laksa, and these fines go to the king ; but, if the woman be of rnean condition, the mulct shall be only five talis, and it goes not to the prince, but the injured husband. The Malay laws are to the same effect. " If," says the code of Malacca, " the commander of a vessel kidnap the slave of the Ba7i- dahara, or other great man, he shall be compelled to restore the slave, and pay a fine of ten iahils ; if he kidnap the slave of any inferior person, he shall only restore the slave, and pay a fine equivalent to his price.'* — " If a husband should kill the man that offers a price for the virtue of his wife, he shall pay a fine of one tahil, for a mere attempt to seduce is not an offence deserving death, excei^ in the case of a person of rank." Distinction in the allotment of punishment is solely founded upon civil I'ank, and nothing ex- ists, or seems, indeed, at any time to have existed, even where the Hindu religion prevails, like the allotment of punishment according to the intoler- able and odious distinction of the castes, unless we except a few inconsiderable immunities to the Bra- mins. Some faint attempts at apportioning the punish- ment to the means of the offender may now and then be discerned . The Malay code of Malacca says, VOL. III. H