Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/147

Rh thousand pichis, and to the magistrate four thousand."

"If a man seize upon a woman, and she cry out, on which he lays hold of her by the hair of the head, and she then stabs him to death with a kris, her life shall not be endangered by so doing, but she shall pay, as the price of blood, to the relations of the deceased, eight thousand pichis, with a mulct of four thousand eight hundred besides to the magistrate."

The laws of the Rejangs are nearly to the same effect, and as follow: "If a person lies with a man's wife by force he is deserving of death; but may redeem his head by payment of the Bangun, eighty dollars to be divided between the husband and Proattins."—"If a man surprises his wife in the act of adultery, he may put both man and wife to death upon the spot without being liable to any Bangun. If he kills the man and spares his wife, he must redeem her life by payment of fifty dollars to the Proattins."

The next branch of the penal laws to be considered are offences against the state or sovereign. Offences against the state consist of exercise of undue authority,—giving false information,—forging the royal signet, or those of the officers of state,—and rebellion. The despotic character of the sovereign authority has been already explained in another chapter of this book. The prerogatives