Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra13141884roya).pdf/261

 RĔMBAU.

As little has been recorded on the subject of this State, except in works not very accessible, and as I have visited it officially on several occasions. I have thought that a short account of the country may not be without some interest for the readers of this Journal.

This State is one of the countries known as the "Negri Sembilan," or Nine States, formerly under a Yam Tûan (in full, Yang-di-pĕrtûan) Bĕsar and a Yam Tûan Mûda, each, however, with its own chief or Dato' Pĕnghûlu.

In Remban, as in Nâning and others of the "Nine States," a considerable portion of the population are Měnangkâbau by descent, and Měnangkâbau people still come over, as they do to Malacca.

Its name is said to derive from an enormous Mĕrbau tree which used to grow in the plain near the foot of Gûnong Dato'; there are said to be some traces left of it still.

Another account states that the great tree fell down from the mountain, and that the name of the country arose from the description of the noise of the fall as the colossal stem thundered down the steeps—"měrbau rĕmbau."

It is further related that so vast was the size of this giant of the jungle that its head reached to the Sungei Ûjong stream, to which it gave its name (i.e., Sungei Ûjong Kâyu Mĕrbau); while its branches extended to the Moar, and it has been pretended that from