BHILS, BURMESE, AND BATTAKS. 



39 



population, are rapidly absorbing them, Webster, in describing 

 the Battaks, says : " The average stature of the men is about five 

 feet four inches ; of the women, four feet eight inches. In gen- 

 eral build they are rather thickset, with broad shoulders and 

 fairly muscular limbs. The color of the skin ranges from dark 

 brown to a yellowish tint, the darkness apparently quite inde- 

 pendent of climatic influences or distinction of race. The skull is 

 rather oval than round. In marked contrast to the Malay type 

 are the large, black, long-shaped eyes, beneath heavy black or 



<2*r^^ 



-^y-- 



Fig. 5. A Group of Battaks. 



dark-brown eyebrows. The cheek bones are somewhat prominent, 

 but less so than among the Malays." 



Neuman, in 1886, reckoned the population of the entire river 

 basin occupied by the Battaks at fifty thousand, and Van der 

 Tunk has given us a very good account of their language, and of 

 the Toba dialect in particular. Battak poetry has been treated by 

 Mr. C. A. Ophnijen in a very entertaining volume, and in it he 

 describes " a curious leaf language used by Battak lovers, in 

 which the name of some leaf or plant is substituted for the word 

 with which it has greatest phonetic similarity." 



The Battaks have invented an alphabetic language of their 

 own, and the various shaped letters are sometimes quite intricate 

 and difficult to decipher. Often they write it on narrow strips of 

 tender bamboo about half a foot long, using for the purpose the 



