Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/149

 LAWS. 1 35 such and such a place valuables, as cattle, fruit, gold, silver, gems, or handsome women, and it turn out that the information is uncertain or false, such per- son shall be fined in a sum of ten thousand pichisJ' The law, however, appears occasionally to have been directed against alarmists, of which we have an example in the following one from the tract so often quoted, Suryo Aldm : " If a person is found guilty of circulating false reports, or of mag- nifying any piece of intelligence, so as to create a great alarm in the country, and put all the people in a ferment, he shall be fined four hundred and four thousand pichis." Forging the royal signet, or using the royal name for illegal ends, called, in the idiom of the Malay language, seUing the king's 'word^ are capital of- fences. Using the name of any of his officers with improper views is also a high offence. The punishment for this last is described in the fol- lowing law of the Malays : " If a person use the name of a great man with improper views, he shall either be fined one tahilaiid one 2)aha, or re- ceive a Jack before the people. If he resist he shall be put to death, for great men sustain the business of the king.'* Treason and rebellion are, of course, the greatest of crimes under a despotic government. They are construed to be not only temporal offences, but even sacrilciie. But there are no laws which describe