If a slave is badly treated and insufficiently provided with food, his offence in endeavouring to escape is generally condoned by public opinion. If a slave is, without sufficient cause, maltreated by a freeman, his master can demand compensation from the aggressor. Slaves of one master can, with their owner's consent, marry, and no _brihan_ is demanded, but if they belong to different masters, the woman's master is entitled to a _brihan_ of one pikul, equal to $20 or $25. They continue to be the slaves of their respective masters, but are allowed to live together, and in case of a subsequent separation they return to the houses of their masters. Should a freeman, other than her master, wish to marry a slave, he practically buys her from her owner with a _brihan_ of $60 or $75. Sometimes a favourite slave is raised to a position intermediate between that of an ordinary slave and an _anak mas_, and is regarded as a brother, or sister, father, mother, or child; but if he or she attempt to escape, a reversion to the condition of an ordinary slave is the result. Occasionally, slaves are given their freedom in fulfilment of a vow to that effect made by the master in circumstances of extreme danger, experienced in company with the slave. A slave once declared free can never be claimed again by his former master. Debts contracted by a slave, either in his own name, or in that of his master, are not recoverable. By their own extra work, after performing their service to their owners, slaves can acquire private property and even themselves purchase and own slaves. Infidel slaves, of both sexes, are compulsorily converted to Muhammadanism and circumcized and, even though they should recover their freedom, they seldom relapse. There are, or rather were, a large number of debt slaves in North Borneo. For a debt of three pikuls--$60 to $75--a man might be enslaved if his friends could not raise the requisite sum, and he would continue to be a slave until the debt was paid, but, as a most usurious interest was charged, it was almost always a hopeless task to attempt it. Sometimes an inveterate gambler would sell himself to pay off his debts of honour, keeping the balance if any.