torn responsible for the goods of a stranger sleeping under his roof, if such goods have been duly con- signed to his care. The laws of the Rejangs on this subject are as follow : — " If a person pass- ing the night in the house of another does not commit his effects to the charge of the owner of it, the latter is not accountable, if they are stolen during the night. If he has given them in charge, and the stranger's effects only are lost during the night, the owner of the house becomes account- able. If effects both of the owner and lodger are stolen, each is to make oa|h to the other that he is not concerned in the robbery, and the par- ties put up with their loss, or retrieve it as they can."[1]
The provisions for letting and hiring are scanty and ill-defined. They chiefly refer to cattle and slaves, the principal descriptions of property that can be let where free servants are hardly known, and the property of the soil is vested in the sove- reign. The following are a few of them, from the laws of Malacca : — " If a person hire a slave from another, and it be well understood on what business he IS to be employed, and the slave be killed, the master shall receive but three- fourths of his price ;
that is, he shall lose one-fourth of it." — "If a person
- ↑ Marsden's Histroy of Sumatra, p. 221.
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