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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



point of a blunt needle. Their dialects differ but little in degree, 

 and consequently the unification of their language is quite com- 

 plete. Many of their superstitions, their myths, and their beliefs 

 are most interesting, and when one comes to consider their ad- 

 vancement in certain directions it is certainly very remarkable, 

 as Bickmore remarks, that " all of them, beyond the territory 

 under the Dutch Government, are cannibals. Those living on 

 this plain also feasted on human flesh until the Dutch conquered 



Fig. 6. Battak Girls. From a photograph. 



them, and obliged them to give up such fiendish custom. The 

 Rajah of Sipirok assured the Governor of Padang that he had 

 eaten human flesh between thirty and forty times, and that he 

 had never in all his life tasted anything that he relished half 

 as well. This custom has prevailed among the Battas from time 

 immemorial." 



Marco Polo claims that the Battaks have been cannibals for a 

 time extending at least as far back as the year 1290 ; and Sir 

 Stamford Raffles, who was among them in 1820, found some of 

 their laws to be very severe. For crimes for which we give but 



