Page:Tales in Political Economy by Millicent Garrett Fawcett.djvu/13

 neatly and carefully built; they were completely and simply dressed; they spoke a kind of patois of Dutch and Malay, in which Dutch took the chief part: and they had an organized system of government, which the whole tribe regarded with great pride and veneration. This government was very curious. It consisted of a kind of council or parliament, which possessed absolute power over the life and property of every member of the tribe. There was nothing so very strange in this; but the thing that astonished Captain Adam was that no one but the hereditary members of this council was allowed to own the palm trees which yielded the palm oil; and in order to make their monopoly the more valuable, the council had ordained that no Srimat should allow the light of the sun to enter his dwelling. There was not a window to be seen throughout the place. The doors were hung with heavy double matting, through which not a chink of light could pass. The Srimats would certainly have died of suffocation had they not been graciously permitted by their chiefs to take down the matting at