ave successive generations of Kelantan _rajas_ cut off the hands,
feet, and heads of detected or suspected burglars and robbers; in vain
have all sorts of stratagems been adopted by travellers as precautions
against thieves; and in vain have the families of convicted men been
punished for the deeds of their relations. Nothing, apparently, can
stamp out the instinct which prompts high and low, rich and poor, to
take possession of any property belonging to someone else whenever the
opportunity offers. Men with flocks and herds, and _padi_ swamps, and
fruit orchards, steal if they get the chance just as much as does the
indigent peasant who has sold his last child into slavery for three
dollars in cash. Most of the great chiefs of the country do not steal in
person, but they keep bands of paid ruffians who do that work for them,
in return for their protection, and a share of the takings. The skill
with which some Kelantan Malays pick a pocket, and the ingenuity
displayed in their burglaries, would not discredit a pupil of Fagin the
Jew; and robbery with violence is almost equally common. Their favourite
weapon is an uncanny looking instrument called _parang jengok_--or the
'peeping' knife--which is armed with a sharp peak at the tip, standing
out almost at right angles to the rest of the blade. Armed with this, on
a dark night, the robber walks down a street, and just as he passes a
man, he strikes back over his left shoulder, so that the peak catches
his victim in the back of the head, and knocks him endways. He can then
be robbed with ease and comfort, and, whether he recovers from the blow
or dies from its effects is his own affair, and concerns the thief not
at all. It is not very long ago since two men were found lying senseless
in the streets of Kota Bharu, each having put the other _hors de combat_
with a _parang jengok_, striking at the same moment, in the same way,
and with the same amiable intention. To save further trouble they each
had their hands cut off, as soon as they came round, by the Sultan's
order. This, when you come to think of it, was a sound course for the
Sultan to pursue.

The women of Kelantan are, many of them, well favoured enough. They are,
for the most part, fine upstanding wenches, somewhat more largely built
than most Malay women, and they appear more in public than is usual in
the Peninsula. At Kota Bharu, women, both young and old, crowd the
markets at all hours of the day, and do most of