o memorable an event as the elevation of a Xerif to the throne would
have been long preserved by annals or tradition, and the sultan in the
list of his titles would not fail to boast of this sacred extraction from
the prophet, to which however he does not at all allude; and to this we
may add that the superstitious veneration attached to the family extends
itself not only where Mahometanism has made a progress, but also among
the Battas and other people still unconverted to that faith, with whom it
would not be the case if the claim to such respect was grounded on the
introduction of a foreign religion which they have refused to accept.

Perhaps it is less surprising that this one kingdom should have been
completely converted than that so many districts of the island should
remain to this day without any religion whatever. It is observable that a
person of this latter description, coming to reside among the Malays,
soon assimilates to them in manners, and conforms to their religious
practices. The love of novelty, the vanity of learning, the fascination
of ceremony, the contagion of example, veneration for what appears above
his immediate comprehension, and the innate activity of man's
intellectual faculties, which, spurred by curiosity, prompts him to the
acquisition of knowledge, whether true or false--all conspire to make him
embrace a system of belief and scheme of instruction in which there is
nothing that militates against prejudices already imbibed. He
relinquishes no favourite ancient worship to adopt a new, and is
manifestly a gainer by the exchange, when he barters, for a paradise and
eternal pleasures, so small a consideration as the flesh of his foreskin.

TOLERANT PRINCIPLES.

The Malays, as far as my observation went, did not appear to possess much
of the bigotry so commonly found amongst the western Mahometans, or to
show antipathy to or contempt for unbelievers. To this indifference is to
be attributed my not having positively ascertained whether they are
followers of the sunni or the shiah sect, although from their tolerant
principles and frequent passages in their writings in praise of Ali I
conclude them to be the latter. Even in regard to the practice of
ceremonies they do not imitate the punctuality of the Arabs and others of
the mussulman faith. Excepting such as were in the orders of the
priesthood I rarely noticed persons in the act of making their
prostrations. Men of rank I am told have their