A Jelebu customary saying
This short note by R. O. Winstedt examines a Jelebu customary saying about crows and egrets, proposing an interpretation linking it to the disruption of matrilineal clan rules by Hindu princely authority in Minangkabau colonies.
Summary
Winstedt draws on Perry’s observations on dual colour symbolism in moieties to establish that in Malay kingdoms the royal colour is white or yellow, while the non-royal Bendahara is associated with black (p. 136). He then cites a Jelebu adat saying — “Crows were white and black were egrets / When to earth a prince fell standing” — and compares it with a parallel Rembau saying and a provision in the Moko-Moko laws whereby the Raja’s word determines whether a crow is white or black. Winstedt ventures that these sayings record the moment a Hindu prince overrode matrilineal succession: under Minangkabau law a prince marrying a commoner’s daughter would produce commoner children of the mother’s clan, but under the prince’s own law they became royal and of the father’s house. The Jelebu saying would thus mean that the categories of “royal” and “commoner” were reversed at the arrival of the first foreign ruler (p. 136).