XXVI.

Of cases where a cause will be lost, there are twenty-five in number, viz.

1. _Hína sáksi_, where the witnesses are worthless disreputable persons.

2. _Hína sábda_, where a thing is lost, and the owner thereof does not give information thereof to his chief.

3. _Hína klína_, where a person finds a thing and does not make it known.

4. _Hína wang_, where a person whom another deputes to act for him, in any law-suit, is deficient in what is required of him.

5. _Kagúndang sáksi_, where a witness produced by one party is the declared enemy of the other.

6. _Hang'ímbu chína_, where a person who has been robbed gets hold of the thieves' tools without making it known that he has done so.

7. _Ng'edong sáksi_, when a person brings false witnesses whom he has suborned.

8. _Hakúto sáksi_, where the witnesses have been bribed.

9. _Hakádang sáksi_, i. e. where a person instructs his witnesses what to say previous to their examination.

10. _Sábda laksána_, i. e. where a thing is stolen within certain premises, and a person residing therein shall refuse to concern himself about the matter. Such person shall be made to make good one-third of the property lost.

11. _Hamátang bubúkan_, i. e. where a person makes one of his enemy's people his agent. Such person shall be cast.

12. _Sídam wárut_, i. e. where persons concert in concealing an unlawful pregnancy and in producing an abortion. Such persons shall incur a fine of one hundred and fifty thousand each; the whole of the people of the village where it took place shall each be fined fifty thousand; and every person of the village opposite to it shall be fined twenty-five thousand. All persons, too, who, though living at a distance, are still under the authority of the chief of the village when the thing happened, shall be each fined four thousand. A person of great means shall be fined one million.

13. _Tatarápan raja pepáti_, i. e. if a person is found dead without its being known how he came by his death, nothing can be done; and it will rest with the Raja to cause the body to be disposed of in any way he may deem proper. If a corrupted dead body, found in a certain village, is first discovered by people of another village, the whole of the persons belonging to the former shall be each fined fifty thousand. Should those persons have endeavoured to conceal the dead body, they shall each, in that case, be fined one hundred thousand. If it is in a field where the dead body is discovered, and that by others than the proprietors of the land, the fine to be imposed upon the latter shall be one hundred thousand. If the dead body is first discovered by a person of the village, and he immediately, by sounding an alarm, summons all the people of that village to see and bear witness thereof; and if those persons afterwards, on examination, deny the fact, the whole of them shall be fined fifty thousand. The favourable testimony of thirteen women, however, will get them off from the said fine.

14. _Ngépi g'ni_, i. e. a person is wounded and sounds the alarm: many people quickly repair to the spot, but see no appearance of any one by whom the wound could have been inflicted; presently is heard the sound of another alarm, at a different place, by persons who declare they have just wounded a thief who has escaped from them, producing at the same time proof of the fact: in such case the person who first sounded the alarm shall be considered the thief. If there is found a person who has been wounded somewhere, but without its being known where or when, and without there being any thing to lead to a suspicion of his being a thief, nothing can be done to him.

15. _Ang'gús súra_, i. e. a wound having been proved to have been inflicted by any party who has been prosecuted for the same, if the skin only is broken, the fine to be imposed shall be four thousand. If it is a flesh wound, the fine shall be eight thousand; if a bone be broken or sinews cut, forty thousand: but if the injury done to the wounded party be of such a nature as to deprive him of the means of earning a livelihood, the offending party must, in that case, provide for him.

16. If a person wounds a thief, and can shew marks of his having done so (as a bloody weapon), and if it has been done in the presence of many people, and it has been plainly seen whither the thief betook himself, and an alarm is presently sounded in the place to which the thief fled, and a person then declares he has just received a wound, such person shall be accounted the thief.

17. _Wardáya chuménda_, i. e. if a person is observed to pass through a village with thieves' tools in his possession, although nothing be stolen, that person shall be accounted the thief.

18. _Artísi wádía dan dérma dénda_, i. e. the disputes of ministers with ministers, priests with priests, and _pundíta_ with _pundíta_, must be decided according to the _Wartárja sawung eng kerta_, i. e. by taking into consideration their different dispositions and natures, as well as their proneness to falsehood.

19. _Tríta chándrang guira raditia_, i. e. the law (in the inflexibility and unchangeableness of its nature) resembles the sun, moon, and water. Whoever acts in opposition to the law, must be found guilty and punished accordingly.

20. If any person be courageous enough to seize or kill a thief, he ought to receive a reward of four thousand. If the thief has a master, the latter ought to be fined twenty-four thousand.

21. If a person enter a village at an improper hour, and is thrice challenged without making any reply, he shall be considered as a thief. A person skulking behind a door or fence, under similar circumstances, shall be considered in the same light.

22. _Nóya résmi_, i. e. a respectable person who may endeavour to screen a thief, shall be fined agreeably to the _untára_, viz. one hundred thousand. If the delinquent is a person of the middle class, he shall be fined eighty thousand; if a person of the lower orders, forty thousand.

23. _Tri maláni nagára_ comprehends three things, which are inimical to the welfare of a country, viz. 1. Corrupt judges; 2. Breach of promise or agreement; 3. _Wígu wigúna_, i. e. Where the Raja, or others who are in authority, inconsiderately decide or give hasty orders about any thing, whereby much mischief never fails to follow.

24. This section is the work of the Púndita, _Pagáwan Chínde Guána_, and contains seven articles, viz. 1. _Súria wíguna_, i. e. the Raja's court is like the sun, whose refulgent rays spread in all directions and penetrate through every thing. 2. _Anla súria kuntáka_, i. e. the displeasure of the Raja in his court is like the heat of the sun, which causes those who are exposed to it to faint away. 3. _Kasíla trésna perláya_, i. e. when sentence of death is passed on any one by the Raja in his court, it must be carried into effect, as in the case of _Kadúrga sangúra_, where a person commits fornication or adultery with any of the Raja's household; or _Kásu síla antúka_, where a person forgets himself and wrangles in the court of the Raja; or _Kabérna antáka_, where a fight takes place, by which death or severe wounds are inflicted; or _Madáwang lúma_, i. e. where a person endeavours to ruin another, by endeavouring to make him appear guilty; or _Ang'gu pála sábda_, where a person, after receiving a distinct order from the Raja himself, incurs blame by executing it in a different manner from what he was told, in consequence of the advice of his chief; or _Jaladri kaperchánda láwat dípa_, i. e. the effects of the Raja's displeasure against any one cannot be transferred to another.